Nortel Networks has rejected Research In Motion’s bid for the wireless infrastructure assets Nortel is unloading as part of bankruptcy proceedings. RIM said Monday night that it intended to offer $1.1 billion for Nortel’s CDMA and LTE businesses, but was told it could do so only if it agreed not to bid on other Nortel assets, something it had intended to do.
The econalypse is eroding demand for telecommunications equipment. Operators are cutting spending on network upgrades. Market conditions are tough, but we are taking appropriate actions. It’s a story we’ve heard before, from Ericsson, Nortel and Cisco. This morning we heard it from Alcatel-Lucent.
Its hopes of rebuilding under bankruptcy protection effectively dashed by the ongoing financial crisis, Nortel is considering selling off its two biggest business units to rivals. Reportedly on the block: the company’s wireless-gear and office telecom equipment units.
More brutal news from Nortel today. The troubled telecommunications gear maker plans to sack an additional 3,200 workers world-wide over the coming months. Taken together with the company’s previously announced 1,800 layoffs, total job reductions will top out at 5,000.
With IBM quietly contributing another 2,800 or so employees to the next Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment report, this seems like a fine time to pay respects to those who’ve gone before them. And there are many. In the past six months, thousands of workers have been right-sized and offboarded. Rebalanced and rationalized. “Smartsized.” Sacked. A quick scan of the carnage.
The Web never stops publishing, but a tech blog definitely slows down on a market holiday. To wit: A (Long) Weekend Update, and best wishes on Martin Luther King, Jr. day.
It took far longer than expected, but Nortel has finally thrown in the towel. This morning the long-suffering telecommunications equipment maker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. “Nortel must be put on a sound financial footing once and for all,” CEO Mike Zafirovski said in a statement. “These actions are imperative so that Nortel can build on its core strengths.”
Tech may be done with layoffs for 2008, but 2009 is another matter entirely. Now that the souring economy has had its way with Yahoo and AMD and Palm and Sun and Nortel, it’s moving on to bigger fare. We’ve already heard predictions that Google will sack as much as 15 percent of its workforce next year. Now come rumors that Microsoft is steeling itself for large-scale job cuts as well.
Where are Tina Fey and Sarah Palin when we really need a laugh? In this week ramping up to the holidays, good cheer–unsurprisingly–was hard to find. 2008 may well be remembered as the year the econalypse stole Christmas.
Yahoo was bereft of cheer, for sure. BoomTown covered its long-dreaded layoffs and published Jerry Yang’s complete memo to Yahoo staff about the painful process, which began on Wednesday. Ex-Yahoos from all corners of the company spoke (and vented) to BoomTown about the as-yet fruitless search for a CEO to replace Yang, who laid himself off last month. But wait–Digital Daily pointed out a singular moment of misplaced cheer–akin to fiddling while the proverbial Yahoo burns–as the company, uh, celebrated the holidays with a bafflingly lavish year-end party on last Saturday–four days before layoffs began.
Nortel Networks is slipping closer to the abyss each day. Earlier this week it was reported that the long-suffering telecommunications equipment maker is seeking advice from Lazard Ltd. and law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton about bankruptcy proceedings. Now comes news that it’s received a delisting notice from the New York Stock Exchange.
A few weeks back, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue warned that Nortel is facing a very bleak future. “Considering the worsening macro environment, Nortel’s challenged industry position, and concerns related to liquidity while the capital markets are basically closed, we think bankruptcy is a distinct possibility down the road,” Sue wrote in a note to investors. Looks like Sue was right, and the road to which he referred was a short one.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
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