Was Nortel Worth More Dead than Alive?

In June 2009, amid the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), Canada’s Conservative government faced a fateful decision: whether to bail out Nortel Networks, once a global telecommunications powerhouse, or allow it to fail. The responsibility fell to a senior official who concluded that Nortel was “worth more dead than alive.” This case study explores the decision-making process that led to Nortel’s liquidation, raising questions about industrial policy, technology sovereignty, and the role of anchor firms in innovation ecosystems.

The government chose not to rescue Nortel, through either financial support or nationalization. Instead, it organized a structured liquidation to maximize returns to creditors, which came mainly through the sale of Nortel’s valuable patents. This decision, viewed by some as prudent crisis management, is critiqued in hindsight as a costly policy error.