(27-Jun-11) The last of Nortel's assets — patents for Internet search, mobile video and wireless networks that can be used in consumer technology — go up for auction Monday, ending an era for the bankrupt Canadian telecom company.
Internet search engine giant Google has started the bidding at $900 million US. iPhone maker Apple, Swedish telecom company Ericsson and chipmaker Intel are also expected to bid on Nortel's 6,000 patent and patent applications, which could fetch as much as $1.5 billion in the U.S. auction.
"There was a lot of research and development going on at Nortel in its heyday," said Mark Tauschek of Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ont.
Nortel was prolific in getting patents for a "wide swath" of technologies they were working on or would be working to defend itself against patent infringement lawsuits, Tauschek said.