Nortel’s Asian Ambitions

Given how quiet it has been on the Nortel front, you have to believe the senior executive team has packed up for cottage country.

But AAN needs to keep feeding your Nortel fix so I was scouring the Web looking for interesting tidbits when a Reuters story from last week caught my attention. Francois Lancon, who heads up Nortel’s Asia-Pacific operations, said the company wants to get 20% to 25% of its revenue from Asia, compared with 16% last year.

Lancon told Reuters it’s “pretty ambitious” - which probably ranks as a major understatement given the fierce competition, especially from domestic suppliers such as Huawei and ZTE.

Still, you have to give credit for being offensive instead of defensive. Remember, this was a company that was battered and bruised as it trudged its way through an accounting scandal and a series of financial restatements. Even if sales don’t show any noticeable improvement, it’s good to see Nortel posturing in a positive way - be it about Asia or how environmentally-friendly its products perform.