Analysts Loving Nortel's Mike Z.
I've got an investment story in today's National Post about how a growing number of analysts are jumping on the Nortel bandwagon. A big chunk of the enthusiasm has to do with the expectations newly-minted CEO Mike Zafirovski and his plan to revive the embattled company by giving it a sharper strategic vision - as opposed to its all-things-to-all-people approach that spread its focus (and R&D dollars) too thin. While Zafirovski is a breath of fresh air after John Roth, Frank Dunn and Bill Owens but investors should be cautious before they start to believe Nortel's back on the right track. This is a company with a multitude of internal challenges that will time to fix, while it faces external issues such as rising competition from low-cost rivals such as Huawei and low margins in high-growth markets such as India and China. It would probably make sense to wait until Nortel issues its fourth-quarter results in a couple weeks before getting too excited about Nortel's prospects, particularly given it should be the first time Mike Z. will talk publicly since he started the new gig in mid-November.
