Judging by the performance of Nortel shares in the past four days, it looks like many investors have decided to let bygones be bygones. In particular, Nortel looks like it is being rewarded for the fact its second-quarter results contained no bad news. In the meantime, Nortel has talked about completing its partnership with LG Telecom while analysts are intrigued by Nortel's discussion about its plans to enter the WiMax market. As Canada's flagship high-tech company whose shares part of most Canadians' retirement plans, Nortel enjoys a unique relationship with investors. This makes it easy for many people to ignore accounting scandals and the departures of key executives such as COO Gary Daichendt. Then again, Nortel appears to have righted itself and there were enough positives in the second-quarter such as the improvement in enterprise sales to suggest there is some traction. The key for Nortel watchers is not to get too excited about short-term (i.e. one quarter) success given the volatility and competitive nature of the telecom equipment market.

Looks like Bell Canada is getting a little more aggressive with VOIP with the launch of a new service apparently aimed at small and medium size businesses. The Bell Business IP Voice plan features all the regular bells and whistles as well as unlimited LD in Canada for $64.95 a month. At $64.95, the service may be somewhat expensive for residential customers but what's more interesting is the new markets where it's being offered: Ottawa, Brampton, London, Quebec City, Hull and Montreal. Given it's a hosted service, can it only be a matter of time before Bell rolls VOIP out to consumers in these markets? This would solve the riddle why Bell has limited its residential VOIP service to only four cities in Quebec. Bell's small business service compared with Vonage's Small Business Unlimited plan, which sells for $69.99.

As the apparent courtship of Niklas Zennstrom (Skype) by Rupert Murdoch (News Corp.) rumbles on, a growing number of people (including Om Malik) are starting to wonder what the fuss is all about. Sure, Skype has been downloaded more than 145 million times and it has 45 million registered users but as Om succinctly points out, the company offers ultra-cheap long-distance service so where's the "beef" to justify a $1-billion or $3-billion purchase price? Stepping back a bit, why is Skype suddenly so interested in finding a buyer? Are its VCs drooling for a huge return? Probably. Is Skype worried about Michael Robertson's Gizmo service, which has received mixed reviews so far? Maybe if only because it demonstrates the barriers to entry are low so a Skype-killer can come out of nowhere. Does Zennstrom and partner Janus Friis want to cash out after walking away from Kazaa with little to show for their efforts? Perhaps. Has Skype been approached by potential buyers? Could be. By the way, you know Skype has really hit the mainstream when the Wharton School of Business does an extensive story on the company.
For all the talk a Skype sale or an IPO. it is also important to look at motivation. Something prompted Skype to hire Morgan Stanley to explore its options. Once you know the issue, then you can understand the subsequent actions.

Sources suggest news of a much-speculated deal between Google and Meetroduction may be inaccurate. The purchase was reported by Internet.com earlier this week but Google has declined to comment about Meetro, which makes software that combines instant messaging and social networking. Rather than buying Meetro, Google is apparently in takeover discussions with another instant-messaging maker as it looks to get Web users to spend more time with Google properties.