Why is it every time Nortel makes a step forward with investors (hiring Gary Daichendt as president and COO), it takes a step backward? Earlier today, the company said it would post its 2004 third-quarter results - 10 days ahead of its end of the month target - after the markets closed. Well, it's 5:30 p.m. and we're still waiting. (6 p.m update: the quasi-official word now is Nortel could delay its press release until Monday morning.)
This is just another PR/IR fiasco. You would have thought Nortel would have learned its lesson last year when it had to delay the release of financial restatement four times. A better route is under-promise and over-deliver as opposd to the Nortel Way, which is promise and fail to deliver.
Does anyone find it interesting that Nortel is not having a conference call with analysts to discuss the 3Q results but it was more than willing to host a call about a US$5.6 million contract it took away from Cisco to supply networkequipment to the city of San Jose - a victory that is heavily promoted throughout Nortel's Web site

The business/technology experiment that is Skype continues to evolve with the launch of two new fee-based services. SkypeIn is particularly intriguing because it gives Skype subscribers a telephone number for the first time. It’s a nice complement to SkypeOut, which makes it possible for Skype users to make calls to people on the PSTN network. The company, which is starting to look more like VOIP service provider than a P2P communications tool, also unveiled a voice-mail product.
Skype is betting – hoping, praying? – that some of its 29 million users will buy fee-based services rather than just sticking to the free computer-based service. The way Skype sees it; a small percentage of fee-paying customers is enough because the company’s costs are so low.
I continue to sit in the skeptic camp. Until Skype discloses revenue and profit figures, there is no way of determining if its disruptive technology can provide the foundation for a viable business. Skype may claim it one million people have used its SkypeOut service but there’s no way of knowing how much money theses consumers have spent or how many of them are repeat customers. As we have all learned in recent years, there are many different way to torque numbers.
Still, you have to give Skype credit for trying to push its business model forward. The launch, for example, of new Skype-enable handsets from hardware makers such as Siemens could be a great way for Skype to shuck off its image as a NetPhone-like PC-based service.

According to News.com, AT&T's CallVantage service had an underwhelming 53,000 VOIP customers at the end of 2004. Om Malik provides all kinds of scenarios, including a suggestion AT&T could bail out of the retail space and focus on the wholesale market. So what should people read into the CallVantage numbers? Perhaps consumers are down on AT&T or, more alarming, they just weren't ready to jump on the VOIP bandwagon last year. Of course, the counter argument is Vonage seems to have no problems winning customers. Perhaps SBC/AT&T should shelve CallVantage as a good idea gone wrong, throw in the towel and start over again by acquiring Vonage. It's only a matter of time before Vonage is bought or does an IPO so let's get the speculation ball rolling!
Addendum: The source for the News.com story is Halpern Capital analyst Keith Dalrymple, who had expected AT&T to have 75,000 customers. He believes CallVantage's problems are probably due to a variety of reasons, including churn and last-mile access challenges. "Wither goes Callvantage?," he said in a report. "Early in the launch, AT&T had targeted 1 million subscribers by the end of 2006. Without changes, we have doubts concerning the achieve-ability of this figure, particularly given the legendary marketing push during the 2004 summer Olympics."
Andy Abramson believes CallVantage's modest numbers may have to do with its "carefully planned entry into the enterprise market. This is where AT&T's business model of being disciplined, versus the drunken sailor approach of spending ad dollars towards a market that doesn't know what they may want." Well said, Andy.

I had a brief, but interesting, interview yesterday with Nortel Networks CEO Bill Owens and Gary Daichendt, who was recently hired as president and COO. Aside from the obvious plan for Daichendt to eventually replace Owens as CEO, I was struck by their intention to use Nortel as a platform to promote integrity and ethics among senior management in North America. The idea is Nortel will set an example to the rest of the world by behaving well and responsibly at a time when there is so much focus on executives gone bad - i.e. Bernie Ebbers and Martha Stewart. In some respects, Nortel's new mandate comes across as evangelistic, particularly Daichendt's assertion that if he, Owens and other executives can't restore integrity to North American businesses, there is something terribly rotten in the state of Denmark. The cynic in all of us would suggest the moral fiber mantra is nothing more than PR for a company rocked by a greed-driven accounting scandal, but you also get the feeling Owens is trying to build a management team consisting of people with skills and high morals. There will definitely be no Boeing hanky-panky going on in lovely Brampton, Ont.