More companies appear to have entered the race to acquire the patent portfolio of Canadian vendor Nortel Networks.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that tech giants Apple and Intel had been accepted as…
More companies appear to have entered the race to acquire the patent portfolio of Canadian vendor Nortel Networks.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that tech giants Apple and Intel had been accepted as qualified bidders, while other reports have named Swedish vendor Ericsson as another qualified bidder. So has RPX Corp, a California firm that acquires patents on behalf of other companies to help them manage their exposure to patent litigation.
Ericsson and RPX have reportedly been accepted as a part of one or more consortiums.
There is speculation that the Canadian handset maker Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry handsets, may also be involved in one of the joint bids.
RIM’s CEO has reportedly described Nortel’s patents as a national treasure.
Google kicked off the process with a US$900m stalking horse bid.
Nortel entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009, and its portfolio of patents includes 6,000 patents and patent applications covering wireless, data networking, semiconductors and other business communication technologies.
Apple and RPX declined to comment. Ericsson, Intel and RIM did not reply to questions.
