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Apr 12, 2001
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nortel_logo1-150x39.jpg


Reuters reports that judges in the United States and Canada have approved the $4.5 billion sale of 6,000 Nortel patents to a consortium of bidders led by Apple. Microsoft, Research in Motion, EMC, Ericsson, and Sony were also part of the winning group, which beat out Google for the patents.
Several large technology companies such as Verizon Communications Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co objected to the sale. Most objections were resolved by reiterating the sale did not negate licensing agreements involving the patents included in the sale.

Delaware bankruptcy judge Kevin Gross said it would be a "$4.5 billion mistake" not to approve the sale.
Antitrust regulators are also said to be looking into the sale to determine whether the winning consortium's bid amounted to an unfair coalition effort to shut out Google from key wireless patents. Those concerns have apparently not yet been satisfied, with today's ruling simply pertaining to proper disposition of Nortel's assests with respect to the bankrupt company's creditors.

Article Link: Bankruptcy Courts Approve Nortel Patent Sale to Apple Consortium
 

Glideslope

macrumors 604
Dec 7, 2007
7,887
5,326
The Adirondacks.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Good. F the FTC.
 

MisterMe

macrumors G4
Jul 17, 2002
10,709
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USA
I am happy that Apple's consortium prevailed. However, the Federal Trade Commission was doing its job.
 

dethmaShine

macrumors 68000
Apr 13, 2010
1,697
0
Into the lungs of Hell
Tears in Google's eyes. Feels sad.

But hey, you gotta pay some price for being a bitch to the entire industry.

But I hope the consortium doesn't charge exorbitant prices while licensing this to Google and other companies. That will be sadder.
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,775
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Los Angeles
Antitrust regulators are also said to be looking into the sale to determine whether the winning consortium's bid amounted to an unfair coalition effort to shut out Google from key wireless patents.
Maybe the consortium can alleviate that concern simply by confirming that it will license the patented technology. Of course it could charge an arm and a leg for it!
 

marksman

macrumors 603
Jun 4, 2007
5,764
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Since Microsoft, apple and rim all make mobile phones and have a smaller os share than google, individually, who cAres if they manage to block Google from certain patents. Many other major players will have access do from a competition stand point it is a non
Issue. We are not a socialist country. As long as the sale continues to allow for a competitive marketplace it should not matter. Protecting individual companies against healthy competition should never be the goal of the FTC. If google had won the patents there would be alegitimate competition concern. With multiple players in the marketplace sharing the patents even if they blocked google it should not matter.
 
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