Bidders 'plot Nortel break up' Nokia Siemens Networks, Avaya and Siemens Enterprise Communications are bidding to carve up Canadian networking giant Nortel - which is currently in bankruptcy protection - according to a report. Seeking a stronger presence in the US market, Nokia Siemens made an unsolicited approach for large parts of Nortel's carrier …
I'm just wondering how my old firm is going to cope, they bought Nortel's optics division back in about 2002 when the telecomms bubble burst. The ex Nortel staffers proved themselves to be self serving pricks then, demanding pay freezes for all except the senior management etc....
This was despite the fact the best engineers were leaving left right and centre due to having already had their pay frozen for the last 2 years already. What a lot of people don't get is just how many jobs rely on a company like Nortel, it's like the car industry. Lose 4000 at the car plant, lose another 60,000 from the local industry.
We use a lot of Nortel kit here, but we've almost completed a move to a different vendor.
The Nortel kit kind of sucked to be honest, but the cost of replacing kept us with them, then when they went into bankruptcy that was the kick up the backside the senior managers needed to give us the budget to move forward with the replacement project.
I do feel sorry for those losing their jobs, I really do, but I'm more than happy the bankruptcy happened from a selfish perspective as the new kit is much nicer to use, and they actually give us some support!
I can't imagine we're the only firm in this situation, so buying the Nortel business may not be as good a move as these companies think. The customers are already looking elsewhere anyway, they'd be better served hanging around picking up the deserters.
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