At its height, Nortel accounted for more than a third of the total valuation of all companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), employing 94,500 people worldwide. Nortel was declared bankrupt in 2009 after almost a decade of financial mismanagement by its executive team. In 2008, three former top executives had been charged with fraud for misrepresenting Nortel’s financial results between 2000 and 2004
Nortel believed the internet to be just a fad and even began developing their own alternative to it. After they failed to begin developing their own internet-based technology, Nortel purchased several other internet-based tech companies who’s stock price drastically declined. This led to their own stock price plummeting. On top of this, many of the smaller tech companies they had sold their equipment to also went bust meaning they were left out of pocket on those contracts. This cemented a spiral of financial trouble, they couldn’t get out of.
