Nortel's Enterprise Auction Set for 9/11
Courts in the United States and Canada have given the OK for Nortel Networks Ltd. to sell off its enterprise business unit.
The decision paves the way for an auction of the enterprise unit, set for a rather ominous date: Sept. 11 in New York, according to a Bloomberg report today. Deadline for bids will be Sept. 4.
Avaya Inc. has had the pleasure of the opening bid, at $475 million, but it's likely the division will go for more than that. Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG was previously flagged as a possible bidder, and private equity firm MatlinPatterson Global Advisors LLC has talked about amassing chunks of Nortel to revive the company, although it obviously wasn't able to snare the wireless piece. (See Avaya Offers $475M for Nortel's Enterprise and Nortel: Think Big.)
In case you've already lost count: Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) won the wireless piece in a July 26 auction, putting up $1.13 billion to beat the initial $650 million offer from Nokia Networks . (See Ericsson Delivers Knockout Blow to NSN and Nortel: It's All Up for Sale.)
— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading
The decision paves the way for an auction of the enterprise unit, set for a rather ominous date: Sept. 11 in New York, according to a Bloomberg report today. Deadline for bids will be Sept. 4.
Avaya Inc. has had the pleasure of the opening bid, at $475 million, but it's likely the division will go for more than that. Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG was previously flagged as a possible bidder, and private equity firm MatlinPatterson Global Advisors LLC has talked about amassing chunks of Nortel to revive the company, although it obviously wasn't able to snare the wireless piece. (See Avaya Offers $475M for Nortel's Enterprise and Nortel: Think Big.)
In case you've already lost count: Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) won the wireless piece in a July 26 auction, putting up $1.13 billion to beat the initial $650 million offer from Nokia Networks . (See Ericsson Delivers Knockout Blow to NSN and Nortel: It's All Up for Sale.)
— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading
Pete Baldwin
12/5/2012 | 3:59:21 PM
re: Nortel's Enterprise Auction Set for 9/11
Wasn't that only if they won? I'll admit, I'm still cloudy on a lot of the legal subtleties and non-subtleties in here...
Besides: The first mention of NSN was a cut-and-paste mistake; that was meant to be Siemens Enterprise, which i've corrected. Sorry!
adcunha
12/5/2012 | 3:59:14 PM
re: Nortel's Enterprise Auction Set for 9/11
You may be listening to too much FUD from RIM executives. I don't believe Nortel has ever said this publicly.
DocSavage
12/5/2012 | 3:57:27 PM
re: Nortel's Enterprise Auction Set for 9/11
Nortel and Ericsson have both indicated that there is no provision that a winner of a bid cannot bid on other pieces of the Business.
Rim is waging a PR war against foreign companies bidding on Nortel assets so that they can reduce the competition for when they bid for the assets they want. Current speculation is that they are after the LTE patents which have a projected value of 1 Billion Canadian Dollars over the next 5-6 years. Speculation also has it that they want to control the technology for their own benefit.
When RIM protested the LTE/CDMA sale to Ericsson they cited National Security concerns and yet they did not attempt to enter the bidding themselves, ask for a court review of the bidding process or attend the court hearings required to approve Ericcson as the winner.
The PR war seems to be working since a majority of Canadians have indicated that they would like to see Nortel to stay in Canadian hands.
i thought nsn and the p-e group could not participate for 12 months on any other nortel asset sales.
odo <-- who does not understand canadian bankruptcy laws!