Weekly Podcast: Nortel, Vonage, Bill Gates
In this week's podcast, we look at Nortel's strategic options in the wake of Nokia and Siemens' decision to create a joint venture with their carrier network equipment units. Does this force Nortel to make a major move of its own, or will CEO Mike Zafirovski stick with his restructuring plan and avoid the temptation to complicate matters?
Speaking of complicated, Vonage continues to go from bad news to bad news (class-action lawsuits, patent infringement allegations, stock price threatening to hit rock-bottom). Is there hope on the horizon for Vonage? If the stock keeps on dropping, will it eventually become a tempting takeover target?
Finally, a quick look at Bill Gates' decision to step down as Microsoft's chief software architect. It's a win-win situation: Gates stays involved while Ray Ozzie gets the chance to move Microsoft more aggressively into the Web-based services world.
