ROB: Nortel to start filing Jan. 10

So Nortel is apparently going to start filing its audited statements from 2003 this week. Wow! They’re only two years late. Admittedly, Nortel has been doing any great shakes lately on the markets but the company has still been functioning. In 2003, it (apparently) did 9 billion in revenue with a positive EPS. While those numbers are in doubt, the company still seems to be surviving. So why is this restated information so important? Is it important to the company itself or is it only really a prerequisite for the markets? Should the company be making operating decisions with an eye to the market? There seem to be more questions here than constructive ideas. One thought, however, is that there are actually two types of information: the info for internal consumption and the info for external consumption. Perhaps NT is even doing itself a favour by drastically restricting the info for external consumption. Should Owens and Wilson focus on running the company or should they negotiate with share holders? Some would argue that those two things can’t be separated but I’m not so sure.