David BurrowsNortel ASNTEL.TODON'T BUYDec 10, 2004
They never buy turnarounds. Extremely difficult to make money in them. Nortel has shown time after time that they can't deliver on what they say they will. Have been losing market share to companies like Cisco.
If you own the stock, you are playing that there is some value in the assets they own. The company is not a going concern. Have a huge deficit hole in their pension plan. Individual parts of the company may be better being sold off.
Has about $4 per share in cash. They are thinking of selling an asset that would raise about another $1 billion, which would add another $2 per share in cash. However, the overall quality of the balance sheet is as bad as he has ever seen it. Speculative.