Nortel Announces 2Q Feeble Financial Results

Last week, Nortel president and CEO Mike Zafirovski said he would leave the embattled Canadian telecom equipment maker, and today, he made good on his promise, just as Nortel announced second-quarter financial results that were - although still feeble - better than expected , Register reports.

Photo: Nortel Announces 2Q Feeble Financial Results

Nortel Announces 2Q Feeble Financial Results

Investors reacted with optimism, bidding Nortel's stock up 5.4 per cent to $4.10 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

At the time, the company had just posted a quarterly loss of $105-million (U.S.) on sales of $2.7-billion. It was spending $449-million a quarter on R&D and had $3-billion in cash reserves , Globe and Mail reports.

In a brutally competitive telecom space beset by mergers and acquisitions among carriers, Nortel’s promised new chapter never got written.

“The Board members and I came to Nortel because we really believed in the value of Nortel's people and technology,” Zafirovski said in a statement Monday. “Although solid progress was made in many areas, at the end, the capital structure and legacy costs coupled with the economic downturn proved too difficult to surmount.” , Bizjournals.com reports.