We may be waiting into the summer to find out the fate of Nortel's Enterprise Solutions division.It's been generally expected that we'd know Nortel's plans for Enterprise and the rest of its divisions this week, when the May 1 deadline arrived for Nortel to file its reorganization plans with the various U.S. and Canadian courts that are handling its bankruptcy protection case. But now Nortel is asking that this deadline be extended to July 30.
Ernst & Young, which was appointed by the Canadian court as its monitor in the proceedings, is recommending that the extension be granted:
In the Monitor's view, the restructuring of Nortel will require significant additional time to formulate an agreed-upon restructuring strategy in conjunction with the Monitor, the UK Administrator and Committees and implement same. The extension of the stay of proceedings to July 30, 2009 is necessary for the restructuring strategy and plan to be fully developed.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that a situation with as many moving parts as the Nortel bankruptcy can't be resolved as quickly as everyone would like. Still, the extension will only make things more difficult for Nortel management as it seeks to reassure customers.
At a session with Nortel customers at VoiceCon Orlando, a big part of the message delivered by Enterprise Solutions president Joel Hackney was a plea for patience, with the hope being held out that the situation would become clearer within a matter of a few weeks. Now that period of uncertainty seems likely to be extended.
On the other hand, July 30 would be the new date for filing the restructuring plan. That makes it probable that we'd see the actual announcement and/or court filings relating to a sale of the Enterprise unit--assuming that's still the most likely resolution--sometime before July 30. The question is whether it'll be sooner or later.
