Did Industrial Espionage Hasten the Demise of Nortel?

Nortel, the former Canadian telecom giant, first filed for bankruptcy in January of 2009. By June, the company announced that it planned to sell off all business units and would not attempt to return to operations. During that time period, analysts tended to blame poor leadership and accounting scandals for the company’s problems.

These sorts of troubles did plague the company; however, industrial espionage may have contributed to the company’s failure and its reputation for not maintaining competitive leadership in the face of a rapidly evolving industry.