From Reuters:

 Nortel Networks, the maker of telephone equipment, filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, a day before it was scheduled to make an interest payment of about $107 million. Nortel and a number of its affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware.

“Based on this filing, the board of directors must believe that not only is the fourth quarter bad, but that the first quarter is going to be just as bad or worse,” said Duncan Stewart, an analyst at DSAM Consulting in Toronto.

Although they have cash in the short term, even the medium-term outlook is not enough to make the company viable as a going concern.” …