Nortel is certainly taking its time

Outside Nortel, the scene is one of press and analysts glancing frequently and impatiently at their watches. Inside, Nortel says it's tearing itself to pieces. And then there are the vultures.

Not to be confused with said press and analysts, the vultures are numerous other companies, from Avaya to Siemens, that have been reported to be shopping for a piece of Nortel in the expectation that they'll get themselves a networking company at a bargain price.

So what's taking so long? Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection four months ago. The rumors about who's buying what have been healthy for at least two months. In the words of Marvin the Martian, "Where's the Kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom!"

Outsiders were looking for a little insight when Nortel announced its quarterly losses earlier this week. But despite revenue falling 37% compared to a year ago, and despite $507 million in losses, Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski insisted that revenue has "stabilized."

Zafirovski has been criticized for his plodding approach. Obviously, he has a heck of a lot more information at his fingertips than I do, and his utmost concern has to be shareholder value, but from the outside it's hard not to wonder whether delays might work in the vultures' favor instead of Nortel's. On the other hand, the vultures probably haven't been all that generous with their offers, knowing that they have the upper hand.

In the meantime, Zafirovski indicated that Nortel continues to take the necessary steps to split out the businesses, even as it considers many different restructuring options. But after all of the hand-wringing and the number-crunching, at some point you have to just pull the trigger and hope you did the right thing.

Jeff Caruso is site editor at Network World.