Verizon is now opposing the sale of Nortel’s Enterprise networking assets on the grounds that it represents a national security risk to the U.S.
According to a court filing made by Verizon,”communications networks critical to the operation of the federal government, and the defense, safety, health and security of the American public are at risk.”
To me this represents a really interesting turn of events. Essentially what is going on is Nortel today (even though there are in bankruptcy protection) is still supporting Verizon and its users. With a sale, the worry is that Avaya (or whoever ends up acquiring the assets – the auction is supposed to occur today) will leave some users unsupported.
Nortel has been under bankruptcy protection since the beginning of the year and has already sold off its wireless division to Ericsson. The Enterprise business is the next business unit on the auction block and to date, Avaya is the only vendor that has publicly announced their bid.
The big question that leaves me with is, isn’t there still a revenue opportunity for whomever wins the Nortel business to continue to support the Verizon business?
