As it promised, Nortel filed its 10-K by the end of the April with the SEC. But no one gets to see the actual numbers until early Monday morning. This leaves analysts - and the media - with just a couple of hours to pore through the document before an 8 a.m. conference call. Not that I'm an expert in investor relations but this whole "file late Friday night but you can't get the numbers for another 60 or so hours" seems unorthodox. Given the accounting scandal, you know Nortel wants to dot the "I's" and cross the "T's" before it releases any financial information. But it also has to balance its internal needs with the expectations of the investment community. There were assumptions the financial results would be available some time during the last week of April. Nortel only disappointed people who don't need any more ammunitiion to dismiss how it operates. That said, Nortel management has the right to do things the way it wants - even if does piss people people off. From my perspective, the company's behaviour is puzzling but far from maddening. Nortel's got far more pressing and troubling strategic challenges than making sure it gets financial results out on time.