Nortel hasn't held an annual meeting since 2003 so you figure the embattled company would put on an investor-friendly event next month for its 2004 and 2005 AGMs. Well, Nortel is holding them in Toronto, home to Canada's financial epicentre, but it's nowhere near Bay St. (Toronto's equivalent of Wall St.) where all the analysts and institutional investors hang out. Instead, the AGM will be held in suburban Toronto near the airport. If you're a Nortel employee, this is a convenient choice because it's only a 20-minute drive from corporate headquarters in Brampton. If you're a senior Nortel executive, it's great because most of them don't live in Toronto. This way, they can fly in and quickly fly out. If you're an analyst, journalist or shareholder who doesn't live near the airport, it's a long taxi ride or a battle through morning commuter traffic.
Perhaps Nortel wants to avoid a repeat of the 2002 AGM in Halifax where shareholder advocate Robert Verdun took control of the proceedings, and grilled management on a variety of issues, including the lack of financial transparency. The AGM lasted nearly four hours, which prompted a call for an intermission so everyone could eat lunch. If you're a conspiracy theorist, it's hard not to get the idea Nortel may not want a lot of people to attend this year's AGM so it can just get the whole thing over with quickly. Then again, this is the opportunity to question the new senior management team, and discover if Bill Owens has a big-picture strategic vision, so shareholders would be loathe to take a pass.