Tough Day for NortelTough Day for Nortel

Nortel revised its revenue estimates down, and is selling off some key carrier lines of business, making it more enterprise focused, Light Reading reports.

Nortel revised its revenue estimates down, and is selling off some key carrier lines of business, making it more enterprise focused, Light Reading reports.I don't know that this makes the strange IBM acquisition rumors any more plausible, but it certainly focuses Nortel in the area that IBM would be interested in--i.e., the enterprise. As I write this (just before 11 a.m. Eastern), Nortel stock is down almost 38%, which could start making them look like an acquisition target if it stayed down, and if somebody wanted them.

I don't know, maybe the idea of an IBM Nortel acquisition isn't crazy. With all the recent talk about Cisco moving to dominate the datacenter, there are very few companies that could make a bid for even somewhat equivalent breadth--even if the products don't match up exactly. IBM could be one of those few.