Judges in the U.S. and Canada on Tuesday ruled on how to divide the more than $7 billion in assets from bankrupt Nortel Networks. Yet the sad saga of decline and ruin of a once global technology giant with a huge footprint in the Triangle is probably not over.

When The Skinny received a personal tour of Fidelity’s headquarters in RTP a couple years ago, the question put in jest to the Fidelity execs was: “Are you worried about ghosts? Are you worried about being jinxed by what happened here?”

“Here” is the massive campus Fidelity rebuilt on the foundation of the once-mighty Nortel corporate campus that housed thousands of workers.

The former networking giant went bankrupt in 2009, laying off thousands in the Park and many more worldwide. Some assets were sold off, and there are still some ex-Nortel veterans working for new owners in RTP. Nortel at one time had an estimated 7,000 workers in the Park, but after the “dot com” and related telecom busts in 2002, that number dwindled steadily until Nortel was no more.

If not the largest, Nortel’s failure certainly is close to being the worst, most devastating in the 50-plus-year history of the Park. Yes, IBM has cut thousands of jobs and sold off operations employing thousands more in the Park, but Big Blue remains. Yes, GlaxoSmithKline keeps getting smaller. But it remains.

Nortel, once one of RTP’s largest employers, is in the trash bin of tech history.

However, the financial disaster story didn’t end with layoffs, bankruptcy and sale of assets. Retirees, pensioners and creditors have been fighting in courts in the U.S. and Canada ever since for the spoils of asset and patent sales that produced well over $7 billion.

On Tuesday, judges in the U.S. and Canada on Tuesday ruled on how to divide the more than $7 billion in assets from bankrupt Nortel networks. After years of legal wrangling it appears the sad Nortel saga may finally be ending.

Nortel did reach a settlement with U.S. retires in 2013, yet other creditors have fought tooth-and-nail for money. (See several stories linked with this post that recount some of the more recent developments.)

U.S. creditors get best deal

In the end, the judges rejected creditors’ proposals and imposed their own in what has been called a very rare example of cross-border judicial cooperation.

“Instead of choosing from among the distribution schemes put forth by three competing Nortel groups on behalf of their creditors, the judges said the money will be distributed on a proportional basis once claims against the Canadian company have been resolved,” declared Bloomberg.

Creditors will end up getting some 71 percent of the proceeds. More than $1 billion has been spent on lawyers.

An analyst told Bloomberg that U.S. creditors fare best, getting 93 percent of their claims followed by European debt holders at 64 percent. In Canada, Nortel’s home base, creditors get only 55 percent.

The settlement has been eagerly awaited by 56,000 retirees in Canada and the U.K., Bloomberg noted. But what will they receive?

Upset judges

In the end, the judges “scolded” lawyers for being unable to agree on a deal.

“The court can only speculate why the parties, all represented by the ablest of lawyers and sparing no expense, were unable to reach a settlement,” said U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross.

(Read the full story at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-12/nortel-bankruptcy-judges-issue-formula-for-dividing-7-billion)

The Globe and Mail in Toronto called the ruling “good news for Nortel’s 20,000 Canadian pensioners and former employees, who have seen their benefits slashed since the company filed for court protection.” However, the paper acknowledged that “just how much they will recover remains to be worked out.”

(Read more at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/the-law-page/nortel-decision/article24400059/)

An appeal coming?

In its report, Reuters picked up on the theme of frustration expressed by the judges:

“Gross wrote in his 130-page opinion that the various regional business ‘have lost sight of the irrationality of their respective positions’ and left ‘no virtually no middle ground.'”

So in rulings issued at the same time, the judges acted.

However, there’s little doubt their ruling will be appealed, one analyst was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Who knows, maybe the nightmare will never end.

Money rules.

And those Nortel ghosts still haunt a once powerful RTP campus.