Bidding for Nortel's CDMA and LTE assets begins July 24, and Nortel took the opportunity in a webcast last week to spell out all of the ways the company is providing leadership in the space, how valuable its assets are and how it is continuing to operate business as usual.
The hour-long marketing pitch made ABI analyst Nadine Manjaro ask during the question-and-answer session whether the presentation's objective was to brief potential bidders in the value of Nortel's wireless assets. Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has set a stalking horse bid for Nortel's CDMA and LTE assets at $650 million, which is considered a steal.
Bruce Gustafson, the vendor's wireless marketing vice president, in essence said, "no," all the while reinforcing the fact that Nortel's business is "clearly a valuable asset and the market has realized that. NSN stepped up and there may be other bidders, but we have been quiet for a long time. Now that we know we will exist and that there is continuity for the business, it's time to remind people of the business."
Still Manjaro believes Nortel is scurrying to find higher bidders before the company's assets go up for auction in three weeks. "The Nortel call today was to tout Nortel's true value, which will potentially increase bidders," she told Wireless Week. "All of the recent press has been more on the negative side so it was an effort to say that even though the company is going through bankruptcy, the assets are still valuable."
Gustafson also hinted to the publication that other bidders will emerge. Aside from NSN's $650-million bid, one of Nortel's largest creditors, MatlinPatterson, plans to submit a competing proposal that would see a restructuring of Nortel around its wireless asset.
For more:
- see Wireless Week
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