Michael McNamara

Nortel is no more…

Michael McNamara — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:52:07 +0000

Image credit NetworkWorld

I’ve been searching Google for the past few days waiting to see who one the Nortel IP asset sale, and there was very little information until late yesterday when Nortel announced in a press release that the sale and auction had been completed.

“After a multi-day auction, a consortium emerged as the winning bidder with a cash purchase price of US$4.5 billion. The consortium consists of Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion and Sony”.

Interestingly enough it looks like Google was left walking away from the table without anything.

Cheers!

Will Google acquire the last bits of Nortel?

Michael McNamara — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 04:02:22 +0000

It would seem that the end is very near now for what’s left of Nortel. The sale and auction of the Nortel’s vast patent portfolio is scheduled for today, Monday June 27, 2011. As you probably already heard Google submitted a $900 million “stalking horse” bid for the portfolio back in May. Since that announcement there have been a number of interesting stories, including Microsoft and AT&T going to court on June 13 to argue that a “free and clear” patent sale would hurt the whole industry. On June 16 Nortel moved the scheduled auction date from June 20 to June 27 siting a significant level of interest in its approximately 6,000 patents and patent applications. Then on June 23 Apple apparently stepped into the fray with the blessing of U.S. anti-trust regulators.

I’m sure there are going to be quite a few other companies involved which we haven’t heard from yet.

Anyone wager to place any guesses?

Cheers!

What will happen to the product lines?

Michael McNamara — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:00:06 +0000

The obvious question on everyone’s mind is what will happen to the Nortel and Avaya product lines? The safe bet at this time is that the data products will probably be fully adopted and the development and research investments will continue. The grey area is most certainly around the legacy TDM products and the IP telephony products. It should be noted that Avaya shed the majority of their legacy TDM solutions a few years back.

Avaya recently released a document that provides some answers although still leaves a lot of questions unanswered. The document did make some interesting statements:

Upon closing, Avaya looks to provide continuity for Nortel Enterprise Solutions and Avaya customers. Currently, Avaya expects to:
• continue to ship existing products for approximately 12-18 months post close;
• provide customer support for all customer contracts acquired in the transaction pursuant to their respective terms;
• utilize the vertical and professional services expertise of both companies to drive realizable value and navigate complex architectural evolution;
• honor product life cycle support as set forth in customer contracts acquired in the transaction; and
• adopt, for data products, the Nortel roadmap and investment plan.

So on the surface this document suggests that Avaya will adopt the current data product roadmaps including the research and development. It also promises that existing products will continue to be available for 12-18 months past the predicted December 2009 close of the sale to Avaya. It also promises a detailed roadmap of all products 30 days after the close of the sale.

Let me close out by pointing up to the current poll at the upper right hand corner of this blog. If one thing is certain it’s very clear that Nortel customers are a very loyal group. Almost 60% of respondents to that poll are willing to give Avaya a shot. I’m also eager to give Avaya a shot and excited to see how they will capitalize on Nortel’s strengths.

What do you think?

Cheers!

Ericsson wins auction to buy Nortel wireless division

Michael McNamara — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:00:39 +0000

It seems that Sweden’s LM Ericsson has won the bidding war over the wireless assets of Nortel Networks, agreeing to pay $1.13 billion almost double the initial offer made by Siemens Nokia for $650 million.

Cheers!

References;

http://www2.nortel.com/go/news_detail.jsp?cat_id=-8055&oid=100259793&locale=en-US
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/technology/27nortel.html

And the winner is – Avaya

Michael McNamara — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:00:24 +0000

As with the sale of Nortel’s wireless division, Avaya is now the “stalking horse” for the enterprise division. I had heard that Avaya had walked away from the table but I guess for $475 million it’s too cheap to resist.

With the overlap of voice solutions I’m really curious how this will play out with the voice solutions. As for the networking components I don’t believe Avaya has much of anything so it should certainly help them sell complete solutions.

Cheers!

References;

http://www2.nortel.com/go/news_detail.jsp?cat_id=-8055&oid=100259133&locale=en-US
http://www.avaya.com/gcm/master-usa/en-us/corporate/pressroom/pressreleases/2009/pr-090720.htm
http://www.allaboutnortel.com/2009/07/20/mike-z-s-zmail-about-nortels-enterprise-sale/
http://www.allaboutnortel.com/2009/07/20/nortel-to-sell-enterprise-business-to-avaya/