Nortel Networks Corp. (NT) promises to end with a whimper, not a bang. As that reality nears – since it appears the company will be sold in pieces – people are reflecting on how an technology institution, founded in 1895, could reach such a bankrupt, inglorious end, and providing some thoughts on what might be done to help.
One blogger attributes Nortel’s demise to executive greed topped off by CEO Mike Zafirovski’s ego. As evidence, said blogger this week dug out Zafirovski’s first mass e-mail to “Team Nortel,” back in December 2005.
“He found it funny to describe CEOs as only ‘slightly delusional’ people, ironically saying that the word [‘slightly’] should not apply here,” wrote Mark Evans. “Recently, laid-off employees, who feel betrayed by Zafirovski will surely appreciate this statement. Shareholders, too.” Click here to read Zafirovski’s first e-mail (complete with nauseating and condescending corporate-speak) to workers.
Meanwhile, another writer fears Nortel will lose its Canadian roots once the company, ostensibly, is parted out to the highest bidders.
Julie Taub, an Ottawa lawyer, writes in the Montreal Gazette that the Canadian government ought to buy Nortel’s profitable units – she cites the Metro Ethernet Networks division – for the country’s “best interest.”
“If the government can spend millions to bail out U.S. auto companies in Canada, which truly have been manufacturing inferior cars for decades, why not save at least the MEN Division? Perhaps the federal government could buy this division, minus the executives and managers of Nortel, and turn into a crown corporation. Let the current division head continue to steer this division – the only profitable one at Nortel. The government and taxpayers would recoup their original investment in a couple of years. This division of Nortel is still the jewel of not only of Canadian hi-tech industry but also of North America.”
It’s an interesting take, to be sure. But one has to wonder if government can run a failed company any better than an egotistical CEO has been doing.
