Warring national units of defunct Nortel Networks Corp. have failed to reach a deal on how to divide $7.3 billion raised in the bankruptcy liquidation of the company, a fallen icon of the Canadian technology scene, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The money has been tied up for years in court fights, which are set to continue in a federal appeals court in Philadelphia. Talks continue, according to a letter filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, but efforts to settle the litigation have so far not panned out. Nortel U.S. is preparing once again to go to court against the Canadian parent company and European creditors, chiefly British pensioners, according to the letter, filed on Friday by one of Nortel U.S.’s lawyers Derek Abbott. The federal appeals court in the U.S. is being asked to overturn a bankruptcy judge’s decision on dividing the money on the grounds it is outside the bounds of the law. Nortel’s U.S. lawyers on Friday set out a schedule of briefing on the appeal, but left the dates blank, saying that they would like to take another month to try to reach agreement and end the litigation.
