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www.youtube.com/bestbuy - Musician and Best Buy employee, Keith Parsons, rocks his Best Buy holiday campaign audition.
94 Comments
- badqat, on 01/14/2009, -10/+60Oh please...this isn't because of any economic downturn - it's because they're stayed entrenched in voice-only communications, whereas folks like Cisco have offered more comprehensive products combining voice and data.
But sure, let's blame internal failures on external events. - publishcron, on 01/14/2009, -1/+33This is been a slow death march to oblivion since 2001:
http://finance.google.ca/finance?chdnp=0&chdd= ... - likwidfuzion, on 01/14/2009, -1/+33Cisco isn't going anywhere.
- inactive, on 01/14/2009, -0/+23It's because Nortel doesn't play nice with anything but Nortel. This has been a LOOOONNNGGG time coming.
- publishcron, on 01/14/2009, -0/+14Um, they're Canadian eh?
- inactive, on 01/14/2009, -5/+18Dead on. Nortel has been stuck in the 80's and refuses to progress.
- ahhell, on 01/14/2009, -0/+12What country are talking about?
- joshmcconnell, on 01/14/2009, -4/+16Actually, they filed for bankruptcy protection... Not bankruptcy...
- doiveo, on 01/14/2009, -4/+15Actually, on second inspection, you're wrong. I'm not defending them but they have been all over voice and data for many many years.
IP phones:
http://products.nortel.com/go/product_content.jsp? ...
routers and switches:
http://products.nortel.com/go/product_content.jsp? ...
Fiber optic Ethernet:
http://products.nortel.com/go/product_content.jsp? ... etc. - Lst01, on 01/14/2009, -0/+10From everything I've read, the problem was the business execs. They certainly had the talent to succeed even in this economy.
- doiveo, on 01/14/2009, -4/+14No doubt that the economic down turn exacerbated the situation and pushed them over the edge.
- Arasaka, on 01/14/2009, -0/+9Exactly. They never recuperated from the fraud scandal, (on top of the bursting of the tech bubble). It took much longer than Enron, that's all.
- badqat, on 01/14/2009, -0/+8Ever wonder why the baby bells have: 1) done their best to merge back into monolithic blocks, 2) invest in cellular and other mediums beyond land line?
- shredswithpiks, on 01/14/2009, -3/+11too big to fail, right? Keep thinking that way... it worked really well last year
- publishcron, on 01/14/2009, -3/+11Yeah, I'm sure the thousands of Nortel employees and their families feel the same way. Have a heart.
- Arasaka, on 01/14/2009, -0/+7I loled. Then felt a sharp pain in my side...
- dougs55, on 01/14/2009, -0/+7If telcos could double the charges for text messages and get 14 year old girls to buy mobiles I would say that they're in better shape than hard copy newspapers. :P
- publishcron, on 01/14/2009, -3/+9Dugg for use of the word leviathan
- jaythewise, on 01/14/2009, -4/+10I live in Calgary, years ago I was to start as an intern @ Nortel. This was during the start of the tech bubble bust. I was so damm happy that I job an internship at such a "great" company even if they were having a "few" issues.
True story... I drive to Nortel for my first day and the parking lots are 95% empty but I was early so I thought meh...
Get to the front door and its bloody chained with a huge red layoff notice sign. They had closed 99% of the buildings they had owned in Calgary and laid everyone off. Not so much as a phonecall to me. Its improtant to note that my interview was a week before this. I guess the dick middle manager had NO idea layoffs were coming....
Since it was so late in the year I did not get another decent internship. Calgary was not booming back then for a few more years so my IT career really was delayed from getting into high gear for quite a few years.
I say ***** em. Just ***** die bastards. Canada has blackberry as its golden child lol... - kopaka, on 01/15/2009, -3/+9Really?
I would say Nortel's 3D virtual world enterprise tool, web.alive, is light-years beyond anything Cisco's got. WebEx anyone?!
Lenovo seems to agree - http://www.lenovo.com/elounge
I'm just sayin'... credit where credit is due. - solmakou, on 01/14/2009, -0/+6I knew several people that worked for Nortel including 2 family members, you are absolutely correct with your assessment.
- InorganicMatter, on 01/15/2009, -0/+6Not really. Corporations have to keep their systems secure and fast no matter what the economic situation is. Everyone simply moved to Cisco because Nortel has been sucking for 10 years now.
- PilotHead, on 01/14/2009, -0/+5It sucks when company may go under (like the company or not, people still work there)
More then likely they might get bought out by a bigger company (Probably holding out till stocks are closer to $0.03) - BrettFromTibet, on 01/14/2009, -1/+6I wonder if more traditional phone companies will start to suffer the same fate as newspapers...
- dickeywayne, on 01/15/2009, -0/+5As a former Motorolan, I knew what Nortel's problem was, as soon as I read the words,
"Chief Executive Mike Zafirovski..."
Those people are so *****. - d03boy, on 01/14/2009, -1/+6Awesome. Because my company doesn't have them as a client at all. Nope.
- Senturion, on 01/15/2009, -0/+5A lot of irrational hate for a lot of innocent people who may be losing their jobs...like me.
- G-RaZoR, on 01/15/2009, -1/+6k thx
- grantmoore3d, on 01/15/2009, -0/+4I worked at Nortel for a short while in a student position... and I'm not surprised. The people working there were lazy and had very little insight about technological trends. What they seemed to think was "cutting edge" had already been done several times over. Glad I got some good pay and some experience out of it, but even more glad I'm not one of the poor people out of a job.
- Pasaris, on 01/14/2009, -0/+49 years ago Nortel's market cap was bigger than Canada's 5 big banks combined. Glad that I never invested in it.
- nkassi, on 01/16/2009, -0/+4But in the end, Nortel has been dying for the past 9 years so ... it's not the latest economic situation that really caused it but a long decline. This was just a catalyst to make the downfall quicker.
So long Mortel. - LoJack, on 01/15/2009, -0/+4When Nortel's stock was trading around $140, John Roth was said to be invincible.
'What do you want the Internet to be?'
LOL... - WNW3, on 01/14/2009, -0/+4...you forgot Alex Trebek
- Vectorkov, on 01/14/2009, -3/+7Cisco is a leviathan, no way it is going down
- AlbinoRaven, on 01/16/2009, -0/+4Not really, the place was run like a piggy bank for a long time until the dot.com crash. Then the fraud charges. And then and then and then....
It really wasn't a big surprise to anyone I'm afraid. - ChayD, on 01/14/2009, -0/+4It's always the ***** business execs (apologies for the cursing but this shows how much contempt I have toward them). Here's a typical example of corporate incompetence taken from personal experience which highlights exactly why these failures happen.
I used to work for a co-lo / vserver company, let's call them company 'A', they were brought out by a larger company (company 'C'), company 'C' don't like having employees, so they subcontract out work to company 'B'. In order to keep my job I had to transfer my employment over to company 'B' once the acquisition was complete. The stupid thing is that company 'C's vserver systems are bespoke, so no one else in company 'B' would be able to do this job without months of training (at leasst no one who'd be prepared to settle for our salary :) ), so we're the ones stuck with the job and now company 'C' are paying company 'B' about three times the amount they would be paying out if the employed us directly, as the contract is based on how many machines we maintain, and even everyday things like backups are charged on a per-incident basis, and they wonder why they're running low on cash! - QsheiK, on 01/15/2009, -1/+4Not to sound like a prick but...
http://digg.com/tech_news/Nortel_files_for_Chapter ...
What does it take for an original article to make it to the top instead of a dupe? - BESTenemy, on 01/15/2009, -0/+3 Once again, I support bankruptcy protection filing. Chapter 11 gives creditor protection to companies that want to restructure in legal safety and emerge better adjusted.
Foolish are those that wait till every last penny runs out to get a bailout and burn through it until the money is gone also. Nortel specifically is a troubled company, so one might argue that they've had their chance already and don't deserve another - that they should be auctioned off to return the money to the investors. I don't know the depth of the situation, so I cannot comment.
I am reading gossip on Reuters site regarding potential bailout negotiations to assist restructuring. If that's the way it's going to end up, then I'm against it. Nortel was contracted to provide telecommunicaiton equipment for the 2010 Vancouver winter olympics and for the next London olympics, so many 3rd party interests are at stake. That is the source of bias.
When companies are bleeding cash, someone has a call whether the rescues are possible. It makes no sense to infuse good blood into someone who's not going live anyway. - heystoopid, on 01/16/2009, -1/+4Time to sue their crap auditing accountants for writing their books "ENRON STYLE" .
- nextekcarl, on 01/14/2009, -2/+5How do you think you get bankruptcy protection? Speaking from experience, at least here in the US, you file for bankruptcy.
- eodp3, on 01/15/2009, -0/+3i lol'd
- scamper22, on 01/14/2009, -0/+3yeah, half of cisco is Nortel employees :P
Well not really, but when I worked at Cisco, it seemed like I ran into a lot of Nortel people in high places. - dtham, on 01/15/2009, -0/+3I used to want to work at Nortel a long time ago (from Calgary) it seemed like THE place to work. And I remember all the people laid off like my friend's dad and he ended up going from crap job to crap job after the bubble. I'm actually surprised it took this long after hearing all the ***** about it for the years after that.
- barius, on 01/15/2009, -0/+3Reminds me of the U.S. government...
- gonzap1, on 01/14/2009, -0/+3another one bites the dust..sing it with me!
- ConfirmedCynic, on 01/15/2009, -0/+3Not that I'm saying I believe they should be bailed out, but a couple of points:
1. Most taxes come from income taxes and sales taxes these days. Corporate tax has been pared to the point where it only contributes a relatively small fraction. So it really would be taking from the Canadian tax payer, not other businesses.
2. Actually, Nortel has a $1 billion cash reserve and could have made the loan payment from what I understand. But they're burning cash quickly enough that the writing is on the wall, and filing for protection now will give them more time to restructure. - xciton, on 01/15/2009, -0/+3BS, total BS.
I worked for Nortel in Calgary from early 90's to 2006.
Nortel NEVER closed any buildings due to layoffs, no big red sign, no chained doors. Your story is full of it. Maybe in a Union shop that would have happened, but not in a non-union place in Calgary.
What did happen is that they hired a ton of kids out of universities, but due to the tech bubble burst, they laid a lot of people off. You would have been paid off $$$ before you even stepped one foot into the building on your first day.
As much as Nortel has problems, what you described NEVER happened in Calgary.
Tell the truth. - xciton, on 01/15/2009, -0/+3No, now Cisco has many other companies to compete with when their assets are sold off.
- xciton, on 01/15/2009, -0/+3What's wrong with that? Nortel PSTN switches have worked for them for decades. Putting a IP frontend on BCM or M1 wasn't a bad idea in general.
It was just handled wrong. -
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