Apple, Others Prevail Over Google To Buy Nortel Patents For $4.5B
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[url]http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_18389636?source=rss[/url]
[quote]LOS ANGELES -- Nortel Networks' highly coveted mobile tech patents have a new owner, and it isn't Google (GOOG).
It's Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft, along with Research In Motion, Sony, EMC and LM Ericsson.
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 are still ongoing, such as one from Oracle (ORCL)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 multiday auction, which began 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," George Riedel, Nortel's chief strategy officer and president of business units, said 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 July 11, the Toronto-based communications company said.
"Nortel will work diligently with the consortium to close the sale in the third quarter of 2011," the statement said.
Florian Mueller, an intellectual property analyst writing for the blog Foss Patents, said he believes Google could have afforded to spend more than $4.5 billion for the Nortel patents, but it didn't, which might show it's not as committed to Android as many might have expected.
"No major industry player is as needy in terms of patents as Google," Mueller said in a statement. "There are already 45 patent infringement lawsuits surrounding Android, and makers of Android-based devices have to pay royalties to dozens of rights holders.
Just this week, Microsoft announced that three more Android device makers, in addition to HTC, are already paying royalties on Google's Android to Microsoft."
Buying Nortel's mobile patents wouldn't have solved all of Google's Android patent issues at once, but it could have helped tremendously, he said.
"There are many entities asserting rights against Android whose calculus wouldn't have changed if Google had bought those patents," Mueller said. "Oracle is a good example. Its lawsuit would have continued at any rate. But Google lost an unprecedented opportunity to acquire a major bargaining chip that would strengthen it at the mobile industry's intellectual property negotiating table.
"I'm afraid it won't get a similar opportunity in quantitative and qualitative terms anytime soon. It will have to continue to buy up smaller quantities of patents from failed startups and similar kinds of sellers."[/quote]
That sucks.
4.5b is a lot of money, i wouldn't have spent it either.
The best part is Google was joking around with the bidding.
They were bidding mathematical constants.
Their last bid was pi. (3.14 something billion USD)
I would of been okay with Google owning some of the most advanced technology Canada has ever made.
But to have a group buy them all up? It's going to take forever to split all the patents up to their new owners.
If I was Bill Gates or Warren Buffet I would have bought the patents for myself, then just smugdogged and not used them
4.5B isn't as cool as Google's bids.
[QUOTE=MIPS;30860893]I would of been okay with Google owning some of the most advanced technology Canada has ever made.
But to have a group buy them all up? It's going to take forever to split all the patents up to their new owners.[/QUOTE]
Does it say they are going to split the patents up? It would actually be cool if they all were allowed equal sharing right and used the new tech in their phones, especially for a company like Microsoft that makes the software if it can also sell a license to use the patented tech with it.
The shit thing is now innovation is going to be even more stiffled than ever. But hopefully not.
[QUOTE=smurfy;30861107]If I was Bill Gates or Warren Buffet I would have bought the patents for myself, then just smugdogged and not used them[/QUOTE]
That'd be a pretty big waste of money. If you don't make use of a patent you own, you're liable to lose it if someone else challenges you in court.
This is bullshit. Google should have bought these.
There are far too few iOS and Microsoft phones to warrant them getting these patents. Whereas the market is saturated with Android OS devices.
Haha, Apple and Microsoft sniped Google at an auction. Google should have had two windows open, one refreshing the auction, the other one with the cursor over the bid button just waiting for the last second...
[QUOTE=SilentOpp;30861477]Does it say they are going to split the patents up? It would actually be cool if they all were allowed equal sharing right and used the new tech in their phones, especially for a company like Microsoft that makes the software if it can also sell a license to use the patented tech with it.[/QUOTE]
Because Apple will totally share technology that potentially means an even greater profit. :rolleye:
[QUOTE=MIPS;30864409]Because Apple will totally share technology that potentially means an even greater profit. :rolleye:[/QUOTE]
uh did you read the article
it said those companies teamed up to buy the collection
it wasn't just apple
[QUOTE=MIPS;30864409]Because Apple will totally share technology that potentially means an even greater profit. :rolleye:[/QUOTE]
As Soda said, a consortium of mobile phone companies (among other things of course) bid and won, so they have to share the patents within the groups.
It seems like more of a move to block and cripple the biggest future threat, google.
[QUOTE=MIPS;30860893]I would of been okay with Google owning some of the most advanced technology Canada has ever made.
But to have a group buy them all up? It's going to take forever to split all the patents up to their new owners.[/QUOTE]
So you would prefer Google, an American company, buying Nortel patents than a consortium of companies that includes a major Canadian company?
I'm glad to see a piece of the pie is going to a Canadian company.
I hope this forces Google to spend an inordinate amount of money in RnD to push the envelope, rather than just paying royalties.
Then google out bids all of them at 4.501B.
[QUOTE=Kinversulath;30865363]So you would prefer Google, an American company, buying Nortel patents than a consortium of companies that includes a major Canadian company?
I'm glad to see a piece of the pie is going to a Canadian company.[/QUOTE]
Yeah except google is a better company
Damn it, Sony got some.
I hope their patent files are just jumbled garbage and instructions to how to assemble Ikea products written in some elaborate code.
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