Nortel CEO to announce his departure


10 Aug 2009

The chief executive of Nortel Networks, Mike Zafirovski, will be leaving the ailing company, stepping down from his position in the coming weeks according to sources close to the matter.

The Wall Street Journal reports that it was informed by anonymous sources that Zafirovski (pictured), who has been CEO of Nortel since November 2005, will be steeping down following the Canadian firm’s bankruptcy protection filing in January of this year.

Since his appointment four years ago Zafirovski has been attempting to turn around Nortel after the company became one of the casualties of the post ‘Dot Com’ bubble in the late nineties.

Since filing for bankruptcy protection Nortel has been selling off its various units with Ericsson becoming a successful bidder for its CDMA business and LTE access assets for US$1.13bn on 25th July.

According to Bloomberg.com Michael Lazaridis, co-chief executive officer of Blackberry manufacturer RIM, said that his company had bid on some of the assets of Nortel Networks before it filed for bankruptcy. He added that Nortel had not negotiated in good faith and said that the sale was not in Canada’s interest.

In March 2009 Nortel revealed that up to 90 jobs were to go at its Co Antrim-based operation in Newtownabbey. At its peak, the Northern Irish operation employed 2,000 people. Today, the operation employs 500 workers.