Nortel CEO Bill Owens has been talking about the threat posed by Huawei almost from the time he took the helm a year ago. Here's what he had to say about Huawei during a conference call today with analysts: "Huawi is a keen competitior.....I think they compete well. We must on our side reduce costs. We are focused on cost reduction. We will stay [focused on] continuing to cost reduction in all areas of our business. I know Gary Daichendt is focused on it, Peter Currie is focused on it and I am focused on it. We will drive the cost structure of Nortel down....We are adding some jobs in China and India. We have the LG partnership in China and the JV in Korea. We will move R&D jobs into lower cost markets. It helps us reduce our opex as we go into this ever-creasing competive marektplace." Huawei, by the way, beat out Nortel for the long-haul optical part of BT's US$19 billion next generation network contract.

Give Red Hat founder Bob Young credit for never letting a good marketing opportunity pass him by. In the wake of Tiger Direct filing a lawsuit against Apple for trademark infringement related to the release of the new OS named "Tiger", Young has offered to license the word "Tiger" to Apple for no charge. Young figures there is no reason why he can't do Steve Jobs a favor given he owns the Hamilton Tiger Cats football team in the Canadian Football League. "136 years ago we were called The Tigers," he said. "If anyone owns the exclusive rights to the word "tiger" with that much history and tradition, it's gotta be us." Not sure how a Florida court will view Young's claim but the Man in the Red Hat, who now operates Lulu.com, a knack for marketing. Last year, Young revived the Tigers Cats with promotions such as offering pregnant women a free ticket to a game on Labour Day. The first expectant mother at the game to give birth was given a life-time season ticket for their baby.

Nortel Networks finally came out with its fourth-quarter results this morning. At first blush, they look mixed. Sales were US$2.62-billion - compared with analysts' estimates of US$2.8-billion and the company's internal goal of US$2.8-billion to US$2.9-billion (based on a regulatory filing made in December). On a positive note, Nortel made a profit of three cents a share, compared with estimates of 2 cents, while gross margins were slightly higher than expected at 45%.
Before anyone gets too excited about the EPS number, net income included US$181-million in income from discontinued operations and customer financing recovery and settlements. This was offset by an US$81 million restructuring charge.
Among the interesting tidbits to come out of the 10-K were CEO Bill Owens' compensation package. It includes a base salary of US$1-million a year with the opportunity to make a bonus of 170%. He was also slated to get a special pension worth about US$33,540 a month for the five years following his retirement. If that wasn't enough of a carrot, Nortel approved an "additional special pension benefit" in March of US$4.5-million to compensate Owens for equity compensation he forfeited when he resigned from the boards of other other companies after he was hired as Nortel's president and CEO last April. As a result, Owens will receive US$119,787 a month over five years when he retires.
Nice work if you can get it.