Nortel CEO Tries to Wrap Company's Dismal Financials in Holiday Bunting

The only reason we can muster that Nortel Networks Corp. (NT) CEO Mike Zafirovski (pictured) still has a job is that no one else would want it. Yes, yes, the holidays are almost upon us, which could conceivably soften our granite hearts toward all the hapless CEOs of the tech world. If only the telecom gear company's stock ticker didn't periodically surface in the 'ol Web reader, like a corpse bobbing up in the Gowanus Canal.

Then again, Zafirovski doesn't exactly invite sympathy, does he? Not when he insists on decking the company's execrable financial results in holiday bunting. Here he is in a Sept. 17 press release offering third-quarter and full-year guidance: "We are taking two years of consistent progress and leveraging it to make the necessary changes to preserve and strengthen our business."

Progress. Leveraging. Strengthen. Uh, huh. Who knows, maybe St. Lou Gerstner himself couldn't save Nortel. But this sort of down-with-the-ship earnings call rhetoric, even spread as the usual disinformation in a press release, must really burn shareholders (at least the ones without a hot-line into company headquarters). The bottom line is this: When Zafirovski took over as CEO in November 2007, Nortel shares traded at roughly $18 a share; today the company is a penny stock.

Happy turkey day. --Alain Sherter

See Nov. 15 post on Nortel's restructuring plan from Tech Confidential
See Nov. 11 post on Nortel's sinking value from Tech Confidential

Comments

[Fact checker:]

Fact check -- Mike Zafirovski took over as CEO in November 2005, not 2007. The stock price at the time was around $30 a share.

It's tough to have much confidence in the credibility of an article in which the "bottom line" argument contains a blatantly obvious factual error. The author could have found the correct information with about two minutes of research.

2008 Nov 27 10:25 AM

[Bill Baker:]

It took me all of 45 seconds to do the same. It's called journalism Larry, look it up!--bb

2008 Nov 27 11:37 AM

[bela:]

He is a shorty, obvious. It is call a anal-lyst.

2008 Nov 27 12:27 PM