The purchase of a number of Nortel Networks patents by a partnership that includes Apple, Microsoft and Research In Motion has passed antitrust scrutiny, the US Department of Justice has announced — as reported by “ZDNet” (http://macte.ch/7R8Ro).
The DoJ’s antitrust division came to the same conclusion on Apple’s planned acquisition of certain Novell patents, and of Google’s purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings, the article adds.
In August 2011, Nortel Networks Corp. (http://www2.nortel.com) announced its subsidiary, Nortel Networks Limited (NNL), and certain of its other subsidiaries, including Nortel Networks Inc. and Nortel Networks UK Limited (in administration), have completed the sale of all of Nortel’s remaining patents and patent applications to a consortium consisting of Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion and Sony, for a cash purchase price of US$4.5 billion.
The sale includes more than 6,000 patents and patent applications spanning wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical, voice, Internet, service provider, semiconductors and other patents. The extensive patent portfolio touches nearly every aspect of telecommunications and additional markets as well, including Internet search and social networking, according to the folks at Nortel.
In 2011 Nortel sold its optical networking and carrier ethernet business to Ciena for US$769 million and its wireless business to Ericsson for $1.3 billion. was founded in 1895 as Northern Electric and Manufacturing, supplying telecommunications equipment for Canada’s fledgling telephone system. It grew to become, at one point, a global leader in delivering communications capabilities.