Feds consider using infrastructure money to help revive the tech company
Former Nortel president Robert Ferchat, 74, is spearheading a bid to save the bankrupt high-tech giant. Ferchat’s group hopes to raise US$1 billion or more from investment to bring Nortel out of bankruptcy protection. Under this plan, the salvaged company, along with other Canadian tech firms, would get federal infrastructure money to build a high-speed Internet network to link businesses and public institutions like schools and hospitals across the country. It’s an audacious concept, but this report says that Industry Minister Tony Clement is mulling over the concept, and bureaucrats from his department and Export Development Canada have met Ferchat’s team.