Nortel AGM Nears

In about 24 hours, Nortel Networks CEO Bill Owens is apparently going to provide the rest of us with his strategic vision. This will make the trek to the Toronto Congress Centre in suburban Toronto worth the $70 return taxi fare ( I hope!). Nortel spokesman Anne Fuller told Reuters that “He's going to talk about some progress on the strategic plan, but also talk about priorities and strategy moving forward.” Given Owens has been on the job for 14 months, it will interesting to see what Owens has to say about Nortel's technology portfolio, which is getting a bit old in the tooth despite US$2-billion of R&D a year. For all the talk about India, China, security and the U.S. government, the fundamental challenge facing Nortel is its technology portfolio. With all the distractions of the accounting scandal and the inability to match M&A moves by rivals such as Alcatel, Cisco and Juniper, Nortel has fallen behind in some key growth areas. Sure, it's a major player in wireless but Nortel is not a robust competitor in the access, router and optical markets. This is what I'd like Owens to talk about tomorrow.