Today, the companies jointly unveiled a road map for 2007, which included plans for a unified desktop and soft phone for VoIP, e-mail, and instant messaging, as well as the Nortel Communication Server 2100, large scale telephony hardware which can support up to 200,000 users on a single system.

Microsoft and Nortel also rolled out three new solutions geared at helping businesses make the transition to VoIP and unified communications:

“We are executing forcefully on the vision of this alliance and have made tremendous progress,” said Mike Zafirovski, Nortel CEO and President.

“We completed the planning stages and are now delivering unified communications solutions to businesses around the world. Our goal is to close the gap between the devices we use to communicate and the business applications we use to run our businesses, giving employees the power to use information more quickly and effectively.”

“The average employee gets more than 50 messages every day1 on up to seven different devices or applications,” added Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

“Software can and will help address the ongoing challenge of managing communications and this challenge is the driving idea behind our alliance with Nortel. Together, we will evolve VoIP and unified communications to integrate all the ways we contact each other in a simple environment, using a single identity across phones, PCs and other devices.”

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Owens’ ship has sailed; after helping telecom equipment company Nortel recover from massive accounting fraud and the firing of 10 executives, he will move on in favor of one-time Motorola CEO candidate Zafirovski, several sources have reported.

How Zafirovski will help Nortel return to profitability may come straight from the pages of Jack Welch’s GE management handbook. BusinessWeek noted Zafirovski was a Welch disciple and implemented GE management practices while at Motorola.

Those practices include the fabled fire-the-bottom-10-percent formula, where the lowest performing managers find themselves jobless annually. Nortel has a presence in numerous telecom related businesses, but isn’t considered top-tier in any of its markets. The potential for delving into growth areas like high-speed wireless networks exists, if Nortel can take advantage of the opportunities.

Owens’ tenure as CEO, after moving up from the board to replace the fired Frank Dunn, was generally regarded as one that would be temporary anyway. But the New York Times reported that Owens had given a lengthy interview recently, where he discussed his plans for running Nortel over the next months. It appears that the CEO change may have taken the former admiral by surprise.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.

Daichendt was only with Nortel for three months. Before that he worked for Cisco Systems, as did Nortel Chief Technology Officer, Gary Kunis. Kunis has also decided to leave Nortel.

“Gary (Daichendt) has made a major contribution to Nortel during his time here and has added value to our strategic initiatives and business plan,” commented Owens. “It has become apparent to Gary and me, however, that we have divergent management styles and our business views differ. I respect him for his decision and I wish him every success in his future endeavors.” Bloomberg News reports:

The departures put more responsibility back on Owens, 65, as he seeks to revive the company’s business and regain customers’ confidence after unraveling $3.23 billion in misreported sales and costs dating back to 1999. Daichendt said when he was hired that he’d be interested in eventually taking the CEO post from Owens.

Nortel’s faulty accounting led to the restatement, the ouster of 10 executives, and criminal and regulatory probes in the U.S. and Canada. Owens, a retired admiral and former vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was named CEO last April after Nortel fired Frank Dunn.

“You can be certain that we will continue to focus on operational excellence as a broad-based carrier and enterprise networking company,” said Owens. “We have a strong business and technology team with significant depth and experience that we will continue to build on.”

The resignations of Mr. Daichendt and Mr. Kunis are effective immediately. Owens will be taking over presidential and COO duties. He is also the Nortel’s Vice Chairman.

Chris is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.

Gary Daichendt became former president and COO of Nortel today, stepping down amid a clash of views with company CEO Bill Owens. Chief technology officer Gary Kunis also tendered his resignation.

Investors responded Friday by dumping Nortel shares in heavy trading. Intraday prices of Nortel stock were down 23 cents to $2.58 per share.

Mr. Daichendt and Mr. Kunis worked together at Cisco, and joined Nortel at the same time. There were no public signs of problems between the men and the CEO. Analysts were not encouraged by the news.

Charter Equity analyst Ed Snyder said in a note that the executives’ departure “reinforces our view that the company is still struggling with management problems that will increase uncertainty inside the firm and lead to lower productivity and declining operating performance this year.”

Nortel just finished its first quarter where its results were up to date with its financial statements. The company still faces an assortment of regulatory probes and shareholder actions related to several years of accounting problems.

One school of thought suggests the two departed executives, brought on to help boost Nortel sales, presented a plan of action that Mr. Owens and the board simply could not bring themselves to implement.

As both Mr. Daichendt and Mr. Kunis were well-regarded for their work with Cisco, it is expected they will emerge in new positions in the industry soon.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.

Daichendt used to be an executive with Cisco systems. Nortel Chief Technology Officer, Gary Kunis used to work for Cisco as well. He too is leaving Nortel. Owens will take over Daichendt’s presidential and COO duties. He is also the company’s vice chairman.

“Gary has made a major contribution to Nortel during his time here and has added value to our strategic initiatives and business plan,” said Owens. “It has become apparent to Gary and me, however, that we have divergent management styles and our business views differ. I respect him for his decision and I wish him every success in his future endeavors.” Bloomberg News reports:

The departures put more responsibility back on Owens, 65, as he seeks to revive the company’s business and regain customers’ confidence after unraveling $3.23 billion in misreported sales and costs dating back to 1999. Daichendt said when he was hired that he’d be interested in eventually taking the CEO post from Owens.

Nortel’s faulty accounting led to the restatement, the ouster of 10 executives, and criminal and regulatory probes in the U.S. and Canada. Owens, a retired admiral and former vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was named CEO last April after Nortel fired Frank Dunn.

“You can be certain that we will continue to focus on operational excellence as a broad-based carrier and enterprise networking company,” said Owens. “We have a strong business and technology team with significant depth and experience that we will continue to build on.”

The resignations of Mr. Daichendt and Mr. Kunis are effective immediately. In premarket trading this morning, Nortel Networks shares went down 4.6% to $2.68.

Chris is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.

Daichendt along with Nortel Chief Technology Officer, Gary Kunis used to work for Cisco Systems. Mr. Kunis has also decided to leave Nortel. Owens will be taking over presidential and COO duties. He is also the Nortel’s Vice Chairman.

“Gary has made a major contribution to Nortel during his time here and has added value to our strategic initiatives and business plan,” commented Owens. “It has become apparent to Gary and me, however, that we have divergent management styles and our business views differ. I respect him for his decision and I wish him every success in his future endeavors.” Bloomberg News reports:

The departures put more responsibility back on Owens, 65, as he seeks to revive the company’s business and regain customers’ confidence after unraveling $3.23 billion in misreported sales and costs dating back to 1999. Daichendt said when he was hired that he’d be interested in eventually taking the CEO post from Owens.

Nortel’s faulty accounting led to the restatement, the ouster of 10 executives, and criminal and regulatory probes in the U.S. and Canada. Owens, a retired admiral and former vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was named CEO last April after Nortel fired Frank Dunn.

“You can be certain that we will continue to focus on operational excellence as a broad-based carrier and enterprise networking company,” said Owens. “We have a strong business and technology team with significant depth and experience that we will continue to build on.”

The resignations of Mr. Daichendt and Mr. Kunis are effective immediately. In premarket trading this morning, Nortel Networks shares went down 4.6% to $2.68.

Chris is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.

The Multimedia Office Client lets users do voice, video, and text messaging through Outlook. It will work with Nortel’s Multimedia Communication Server 5100 and 5200 platforms, which provide multimedia over IP for enterprises and carriers, respectively.

Those platforms use Session Initiation Protocol to translate IP multimedia traffic between existing analog phone switches and IP devices.

Nortel provided demonstrations at Chicago’s Supercomm today. The Multimedia Office Client will appear as a toolbar in Outlook 2003. Users will be able to click on a contact’s name and initiate a voice, video, or text session with that contact, as long as they also have the capability to participate.

The toolbar will indicate what type of communication the contact can accept. Further, users can define rules for the various communication methods, just as they can define rules for e-mail today.

Nortel also will work with Microsoft on building support for Nortel voice switches into Microsoft’s Live Communications Server 2005. Microsoft has figured prominently at Supercomm, announcing partnerships with AT&T, Sylantro Systems, and Amdocs on VoIP and other technologies.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.

Revenues were $2.62 billion compared to $3.27 billion for the fourth quarter of 2003. The Company’s net earnings were $133 million, down from $528 million, in 2003.

Net earnings in the fourth quarter of 2004 included $37 million of net earnings from discontinued operations; special charges of $81 million related to restructuring activities; and a benefit of approximately $134 million primarily related to customer financing recovery and settlements.

“I am proud of the progress we made during the past year, delivering solid performance in our core businesses through extremely unique and challenging circumstances,” said Nortel vice-chairman and CEO Bill Owens. “Our message is clear: Nortel is Playing to Win. In the past year, we’ve stabilized the business and laid the groundwork to move forward with velocity. We’ve taken steps to ensure ethics, integrity and transparency in our financial reporting, strengthened our world-class leadership team by recruiting new talent, and are speeding solutions to market through a partnerships and alliances strategy, while focusing on emerging markets and opportunities.”

The company is predicting revenue in 2005 to be higher than last year’s $9.83 billion.

Chris is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.

This acquisition will create Nortel PEC Solutions which will provide mission-critical solutions for U.S. federal, state and local government customers.

“Nortel is playing to win, and the acquisition of PEC is another example of Nortel’s unwavering commitment to strategic business initiatives in the government, services and security arenas,” said Nortel CEO and vice chairman Bill Owens. “This acquisition will aggressively position Nortel in the U.S. federal government IT market. This market is characterized by consistent and steady growth and presents a significant opportunity for Nortel, based on expected demand for our specific technology and services capabilities in this market.”

According to a press release, the acquisition of PEC is expected to provide the ‘accelerator’ for Nortel to compete more fully and completely in the government market. Nortel PEC Solutions will combine PEC’s high-end professional services and Nortel’s technology solutions to bring greater value – including a strong combined security offering – to existing partners, new partners, and customers in the U.S. government market.

“We expect growing demand in the government market for our portfolio of converged network solutions – Nortel’s core competencies,” said Chuck Saffell, Nortel’s president of Federal Network Solutions. “Linked with PEC’s strong and proven track record of over 20 years of delivering differentiating solutions and strong program management, Nortel PEC Solutions will be a winning combination for the U.S government customers we serve.”

The transaction is expected to be completed in June.

Chris is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.

Nortel and Sasken have also signed an amendment to an existing services agreement under which they will continue to work together to develop new software and deploy Nortel networking solutions.

Sasken, a pioneer in telecom research and development (R&D) outsourcing, has been a key supplier to Nortel since 1991, and is currently focused on supporting Nortel’s GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) digital wireless and enterprise communications solutions. Sasken will also play a major role in training, technical support and other engineering services in Nortel projects in India.

This investment strengthens Nortel’s strategic relationship with Sasken and aligns with Nortel’s objective to bring greater capabilities to customers in the critical emerging markets of India and the Asia Pacific region.

Sasken plans to use this investment to fuel its growth through acquisitions.

“Nortel has been an important customer of Sasken for the past 15 years,” said Rajiv Mody, chairman and chief executive officer, Sasken Communication Technologies Limited. “This investment is a re-affirmation of Nortel’s long and close relationship with Sasken. We believe that this investment and the expanded services agreement are key milestones in achieving our vision of becoming India’s leading telecommunication solutions provider.”

“India is an important market for Nortel,” said Brian McFadden, chief research officer, Nortel, “and Sasken has played a key role in Nortel’s R&D and market success. Strengthening our relationship with Sasken is an investment in our future, and provides Nortel with a stronger foothold to serve our customers in India and the Asia Pacific region.”

“This is another important investment in strengthening our position as a leading player in India,” said John Giamatteo, president, Asia Pacific, Nortel. “A close relationship with a leading local supplier like Sasken in one of the world’s fastest growing markets will further enhance Nortel’s ability to stay competitive in the Indian market and beyond.”

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