– Updated 04-04-11 – Google has offered Nortel $900 million for its patent portfolio. According to the Google Blog, Nortel selected the Google bid as the “stalking-horse bid,” which is the starting point against which others will bid prior to the auction. They hope that the Nortel patent portfolio will “create a disincentive for others to sue Google.” I wrote about the litigation-happy nature of the mobile telecom market here.
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Bankrupt Canadian telecom giant Nortel Networks is auctioning off its patents to the highest bidder. The sale of the patents is the last gasp of a bankrupt networking giant. Nortel, which Reuters says had a market capitalization of more than $250 billion and more than 90,000 employees. The bones of the one-time king are scattered across the landscape.
But now Sweden-based network equipment maker Ericsson owns most of Nortel’s North American wireless operations, its multi-service switch business, and a Chinese joint venture. Ciena Corp. bought Nortel’s optical networking and carrier Ethernet business, while the Canadian government is taking over Nortel’s Ottawa campus.
Nortel had more than 4,000 patents, with a market valuation of about $1 billion. Nortel owns seven of the 105 patent families likely to be likely components of 4G wireless technologies to LTE and Service Architecture Evolution (SAE), research firm Fairfield Resources told Reuters. Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) are both eying the patents in their escalating wireless wars, Reuters reported.
Citing unnamed sources. Von|Xchange says Research In Motion (RIMM) and Motorola (MOT) are also said to be eying the intellectual property. Potential buyers will study how widely Nortel’s 4G-related patents have been licensed, since the company went into bankruptcy protection before 4G was commercially viable warns Reuters.
The due diligence for the Nortel Wireless patent pursuers may not be necessary because the ITU has redefined 4G all the way back to HSPA+, rubber-stamping the marketing claims of the operators according to Connected Planet. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has changed its definitions of 4G, bringing not just WiMax and long-term evolution (LTE) under the umbrella of 4th generation, but also evolved 3G technologies like high-speed packet access plus (HSPA+).
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
