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NATHAN OLIVAREZ-GILES Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — Nortel Networks Corp.’s highly coveted mobile tech patents have a new owner, and it isn’t Google Inc.
It’s Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp., along with Research In Motion Ltd., Sony Corp., EMC Corp. and LM Ericsson AB.
The six companies teamed up to buy the Nortel patents as a group, together spending $4.5 billion for a cluster of more than 6,000 patents and patent applications that many consider crucial to the future of mobile computing technologies.
The patents cover wireless technologies used in phones and tablet computers, wireless 4G data transfer, data networking, optical technologies, semiconductors and other highly sought-after patents.
The sale of the patents is a coup for the six-company consortium over Google, which is known for having a weaker patent portfolio than many of its competitors. That gap has left Google’s Android operating system, the world’s most popular smartphone operating system, vulnerable to lawsuits. And the lawsuits have come for Google, some still ongoing such as Oracle seeking billions of dollars in a dispute over Android.
Google made a $900 million bid for the patents that was a starting point in the multi-day auction, which began on Monday. Information on how many other bids were made, and by whom, was not released.
“Following a very robust auction, we are pleased at the outcome of the auction of this extensive patent portfolio,” said George Riedel, Nortel’s chief strategy officer and president of business units, in a statement. “The size and dollar value for this transaction is unprecedented, as was the significant interest in the portfolio among major companies around the world.”
The sale is a big one for Nortel, a company dealing with a bankruptcy. The deal is still subject to approval from Canadian and U.S. courts. A decision is set to take place in a joint hearing expected to be held on July 11, the Toronto-based communications company said.