I spoke with a few of Nortel’s competitors and they feel the recent news about Nortel and Microsoft collaborating is not such a big deal. They say there is nothing in the details that excludes any other communications vendor from doing the same if not more with the operating systems leader.

My take is that even if this is true Nortel did a smart thing by working with Microsoft early and they certainly are leveraging this relationship to improve their brand. The financial scandal of years past is slowly being forgotten and anything additional they can do to convey strength and stability makes sense.