Nortel accounts review won't end this quarter

Nortel Networks Corp. officials have no idea how long it will take to restate the company's accounts for 2003 and for the first quarter of 2004, they said Wednesday, as they outlined their short-term priorities to restore confidence in the company.

On April 28, the Brampton, Ontario, company fired Chief Executive Officer Frank Dunn, appointing Bill Owens in his place, and announced it would delay reporting its first-quarter results pending an independent review of the figures. The company had planned to report the results on April 29, but there's no telling when they will be reported now.

"'How long' is one of those questions that we can't answer now," Owens said in a conference call with analysts and journalists Wednesday. "We are not prepared to give any indication of how long this is going to take," he said.

Owens plans to be more open about other matters, however.

"It's our intention to be as forthcoming as possible about the state of our business," he said, promising to issue bi-weekly updates on the company's financial health beginning this week, as required by the Ontario Securities Commission.

In the short term, Owens' has five goals, he said:

-- Complete the restatement of results;

-- Fix internal systems to report financial results accurately and transparently in future;

-- Drive revenue growth;

-- Set up a core marketing unit to unify the company's communication on technology, and

-- Boost cash reserves while cutting costs.

Cost reduction "doesn't necessarily mean employee reduction," Owens said. Over the last few years, Nortel has already seen employee numbers cut from 100,000 to around 35,000, he said.

Since his appointment, Owens has been visiting employees and customers around the world, trying to reassure them about the company's future. During his travels, he said, customers and employees alike have told him they would stick with Nortel.