Tech & Biz

Nortel files for bankruptcy protection Chapter 11

by Barry Artiste | January 14, 2009 at 05:47 am

539 views | 51 Recommendations | 8 comments

Barry Artiste Op/Ed
Shares in Nortel Stocks have been halted, which pretty much guarantees Bankruptcy. Nortel filed Chapter 11 in the US. Who knows what is in store for the Canada arm of Nortel, which is only minutes away once the trading floor opens for business today. Shares of Nortel, one of Canadas biggest Hi Tech firms reached a high of over $120.00 a share in 2000 and now are at a low of INITIAL_CONTENT.40 cents a share. Nortel had a staff in 2000 of close to 20,000 worldwide and now are reduced to around 4,000 personnel. With the remaining lose buy out cash? Chance are they will be SOL. What could happen next, perhaps divisions of Nortel could go up for grabs to emerging and existing High Tech firms interested in Nortel Technology. Bottom line if you have shares in Nortel, they are now worthless, but then many knew that years ago.

The company's board of directors reportedly met in Toronto Tuesday to assess the company's future, just two days before the telecom firm is due to repay a $107-million interest debt on bonds.
"They don't have $107 million dollars just to make an interest payment so the next logical step might be filing for bankruptcy protection or protection from its creditors," BNN's Michael Kane reported Wednesday.

The interest payment would amount to about 10 per cent of the company's North American cash reserves.

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Paschen

at 06:08 on January 14th, 2009

Nortel Filling for Bankruptcy Protection is some what a surprise. They where leaders in their field, I did not expect that one.

Jordan Yerman

at 08:18 on January 14th, 2009

Ultimately, this can be good news for Nortel, which has become like that Anaconda you see at the zoo: far too big and bloated to survive in the wild. Should the company survive this latest dark chapter, it could well emerge as a more viable entity, attracting more talent and more investor confidence.

Barry Artiste

at 16:45 on January 14th, 2009

Methinks it is dead in the water my Brother Sean had been with them for 15 years as a senior analyst and he says it doesn't look good, though some divisions may be up for grabs.

car1edb

at 11:42 on January 14th, 2009

Seems to be the first of many, ~30k jobs worldwide, sponsors the 2010 and 2012 games,... the bond bubble has matured and looks to be starting to burst, so when china, saudi and others start cashing in - whole economies will bankrupt.

Broken into pieces might be easier to swallow, but isn't it better to buy it as a whole - if you can afford it at this time that is.. probably another big telco will snap it up and bolster their empire.

SOLARLIFE

at 13:00 on January 14th, 2009

Barry good to hear from you, Nortel filed CH11 in the US, can they do that in canada ?

Amy Judd

at 13:17 on January 14th, 2009

I can't believe how much their shares have fallen; imagine if that was your nest egg for the future? scary stuff.

eastvanray

at 13:20 on January 14th, 2009

I just watched on the news that when you adjust for stock reorganizations (consolidations and splits) the real decline in NT stock from its peak is from $1000/share to $0.01/share. I guess it goes to show that even a great company can be run into the ground.