The BiddingThe Bidding

What the ground rules have to say.

Obviously, this Nortel Enterprise auction is turning out to be quite the nail-biter, especially for those of us who have been refreshing our browsers on Bo Gowan's Twitter page every 15 minutes or so since mid-day Friday. People have been looking for any tea leaves they can find, and here's mine for you to consider as you pour your Sunday morning coffee:The court-approved auction procedures state that, "Each incremental bid at the Auction shall provide net value to the estate of at least U.S. $2.375 million over the Starting Bid or the Leading Bid." So there could be many rounds of bidding without the price being driven up as high as you might expect. Especially since the sellers can consider other factors in determining the Leading Bid, including the number of Nortel Enterprise employees the buyer proposes to keep.

Of course the procedures also allow the sellers' side to modify this increment number.

Bottom line, if the original procedures have remained in place, you could go 10 rounds of bidding without cracking the $500 million mark. Or they could be over $1 billion and going at it like crazed hyenas. We'll have to wait and see.What the ground rules have to say.