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BlackBerry to bid for Nortel patents to stop Google
Tuesday April 19, 2011 10:18:50 AM,
IANS
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Toronto: Though
Research In Motion (RIM) here has not confirmed it, reports say the BlackBerry maker is planning to bid for thousands of wireless
technology patents belonging to failed telecom giant Nortel. Earlier
this month, Google offered $900 million to buy about 6,000 Nortel
patents. RIM will have to bid at least up to $926 million, according
to auction rules. If the BlackBerry maker or other players enter the
bidding process, auction will take June 20.
Nortel's patent inventory has been estimated to be worth about $1
billion.
The 129-year-old Canadian telecom giant's accumulated problems -
from the bubble burst to internal accounting scandal to the current
meltdown - forced it to seek bankruptcy protection in the US and
Canada January 2009.
After this, Nortel has been selling off its various businesses to
pay its debtors. It has so far raised about $3 billion by selling
its next-generation wireless business to Sweden's Ericsson for $1.13
billion, its enterprise division to America's Avaya Inc. for $900
million, and its optical networking and carrier Ethernet business to
the US network specialist Ciena Corp for $769 million.
It is now selling its last remaining asset of about 6,000 patents
related to cutting-edge, next-generation wire technology.
The patent portfolio touches nearly every aspect of
telecommunications and additional markets as well, including
Internet search and social networking, according Nortel.
RIM, which was shut out of the bidding process for Nortel's wireless
business in 2009, doesn't want Google to get its hands on these
patents and patent applications.
Since Nortel-patented technology is used in RIM's BlackBerry,
Apple's iPhone and Google Android smart phones, the buyer of these
patents will gain the rights to license this technology to secure
royalties and market influence.
The Google offer for Nortel patents assumes significance as the
Internet search engine giant is entering other areas, including
telecom, as devices running on its Android operating system are fast
snatching market from Apple, RIM, Nokia and Microsoft.
Once the world's top telecom company, Nortel employed 90,000 people
worldwide at its peak.
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