In less than a week, Nortel Networks’ U.S., Canadian and European divisions will launch a courtroom contest over $7.3 billion in cash, a massive, innovative, cross-border six-week trial, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The case has been a bit of a mystery, according to the company’s creditors committee, as Nortel lawyers have decided to keep everything confidential until a later date. Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009, selling off its last operating divisions in 2010 and its patents in 2011. But while Nortel doesn’t have any business anywhere — not in the U.S., Canada, or Europe — in need of the protective shield of confidentiality, it does have secrets, lawyers told Justice Frank Newbould of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice at an April court session. Mostly those secrets are other companies’ secrets, according to the lawyers. Nortel is due to report on Thursday to Justice Newbould in Toronto and Judge Kevin Gross in Wilmington, Del., with pre-trial updates.
