It took two judges in two different countries, with the assistance of some beefed up courtroom technology, to decide the question of how the approximately $7.3 billion in Nortel Networks assets should be split between the bankrupt company’s three international estates.
And after two months of trial held simultaneously in courtrooms in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario, the judges didn’t exactly agree with each other or any of the seven core parties’ arguments, but they agreed on the result. The court adopted a modified pro rata allocation that took into account the sums sought by the three main estates’ creditors. It was a method highly disputed by the U.S. and European factions of the bankruptcy estate.
