Lesieur also noted that "it seems the right time for the board of directors to flip the switch to break up Nortel for divestiture."

Lesieur said in a later interview that recent comments by Zafirovski that the company needs three to five years to recreate itself are too long a time period, especially when several years is equivalent to several decades in the fast-changing networking market.

While the market for telecommunications products has contracted in the past five years, the top tier of networking equipment makers has not consolidated but should naturally do so, putting more pressure on Nortel's board to do something dramatic, Lesieur said.

Lesieur said he plans to watch closely as Nortel reassesses its portfolio of products. Enterprise customers "need to get Nortel to convincingly demonstrate that Nortel is here for the long term," he said.

Gratke and Ford said Lesieur's suggestion of divestiture is an overreaction.