With the blessing of Delaware and Ontario bankruptcy courts in tow, Nortel will move ahead with the planned auction of its Metro Ethernet Network (MEN) division on November 13. Bankruptcy courts in both Delaware and Ontario approved Ciena's stalking horse bid after suffering a minor setback. If you're a vendor that wants to trump Ciena's stalking horse bid, you have until November 9 to file a counteroffer.
Getting to this point has not been easy. Citing concerns over the $16 million breakup fee, plus the $5 million in expenses Ciena would receive if the deal fell apart, the two bankruptcy judges rejected the initial deal. Not long after the initial deal was rejected, Nortel and Ciena's revised plan got necessary court approvals.
At this point, however, neither Ciena nor Nortel are providing any details of the revised plan. "We do not have specific details on those changes at this time; however any modifications will be reflected in the court orders which will be publicly available," wrote spokesman Bo Gowan in an email to CANOE Technology.ca.
While no other bidders have emerged, there's still a possibility that either Ericsson or Nokia Siemens Networks could come to the table on November 13th with a higher offer for Nortel's business.
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