By Bo Gowan
17 September 2008
1:17 pm EDT
A key part of today’s Nortel news was the announcement of the intent to explore the divestiture of Nortel’s Metro Ethernet Networks business. This signals a shift in strategy for Nortel. George Riedel, Nortel’s Chief Strategy Officer, is central to this strategy. Yesterday, I asked George for his thoughts on the news, and what the potential sale of Nortel’s MEN business will mean for Nortel.
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Nortel Chief Strategy Officer George Riedel
Q: Nortel is announcing a major change in strategic direction. Why?
George Riedel: Three reasons 1) We have a very attractive asset in a strongly performing MEN business 2) This optical/carrier Ethernet segment of the industry needs consolidation and …
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By Bo Gowan
17 September 2008
10:31 am EDT
This morning Nortel issued this press release with two significant pieces of news:
Nortel has announced the intention to divest its Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) business.
Nortel has announced a preliminary view on 3Q08 results (ending Sept 30), and revised its full-year 2008 outlook.
After listening in on Mike Z and Pavi Binning’s conference call on the news, and reading some of the internal communications sent to Nortel employees, I wanted to give a couple of my thoughts and observations on the news.
Obviously, the news of our revised financial outlook for 2008 is disappointing. As Mike Z stated on the conference call, “We are certainly disappointed that we are not going to meet our 2008 targets which were announced earlier in …
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By Bo Gowan
17 September 2008
10:16 am EDT
Just a quick note to everyone on what I’m going to try to do with this Buzzboard blog over the next few days. Today’s news is obviously big, and I’m sure it is going to generate a lot of questions, comments and discussion from you.
In order to set some expectations and guidelines, I wanted to quickly outline a few topics that I will not be able (or allowed) to address:
Speculation about possible future Nortel moves, including restructuring or cost reduction initiatives, and speculation on the potential divestiture of Nortel’s MEN business (including time frame or terms relating to such potential sale).
Speculation on Nortel’s financial results or financial guidance.
Speculation about Nortel’s stock price, or how today’s news might affect Nortel’s …
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By Bo Gowan
17 September 2008
6:32 am EDT
Nortel this morning has issued this press release with two significant pieces of news:
Nortel has announced the intent to “explore a divestiture” of its Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) business.
Nortel has announced a preliminary view on 3Q08 results (ending Sept 30), and revised its full-year 2008 outlook.
The MEN business, which is led by Philippe Morin, includes Nortel’s optical business (including the 40/100gig solution that’s been making news in recent months) and Nortel’s Carrier Ethernet business. The release states that Nortel intends to explore the divestiture (the sale) of the MEN business for the “monetization of this asset”, which the press release highlights as “a premium asset with a highly differentiated offering.”
On the financial side, the press release …
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