AfterDawn: Tech news

DOJ approves Google's bid for Nortel patents

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Jun 2011 8:03 User comments (1)

DOJ approves Google's bid for Nortel patents Google's $900 million "stalking-horse" bid for 6000 Nortel patents has been approved by the Department of Justice, meaning an auction is set to begin next week.
Nortel has been selling off assets since going bankrupt in 2009 in an effort to pay off creditors. Once trading as high as $600 a share in the tech bubble of the late 90s, Nortel shares now trade for 4 cents.

Google first bid on the patents in April but met with resistance from Apple, Research in Motion, Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon, Hewlett-Packard and Nokia, each of which filed objections.



The search giant is looking to acquire the patents (which include hundreds of each for wireless, 4G, data networking, optical, voice, and semiconductors) in a defensive move as it fights lawsuits from Oracle and others over its Android operating system.

Said the company with its original bid:

One of a company’s best defenses against this kind of litigation is (ironically) to have a formidable patent portfolio, as this helps maintain your freedom to develop new products and services. Google is a relatively young company, and although we have a growing number of patents, many of our competitors have larger portfolios given their longer histories.


For now, the $900 million will be the starting bid in next week's auction, which is expected to see other bids.

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1 user comment

114.6.2011 20:46

I actually hope google wins this because it seems like everyone else wants to sue them for something and as you can see now, WP7 is actually banking more from the royalties they collect from google more than they are collecting from their own suck phone.

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