Nortel Networks has received court approval to accept a US$900 million bid from Ranger Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Google Inc., for the rest of the company's remaining patent portfolio.
The decision was made in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. This is a "stalking horse" bid, which means that the US$900 million amount essentially becomes the starting bid in the auction for Nortel's assets. About 6,000 patents that have been applied for or issued are up for grabs.
Telecommunications technologies featured in Nortel's patent portfolio include 4G, wireless, Internet, data networking, and an array of others.
Qualified bidders looking to compete with Google's offer, have until June 13th to submit bid offers. Competing qualified bids will be expected to proceed to an auction scheduled for June 20th. The winning bid will then have to be approved by U.S. and Canadian courts.
Nortel filed for U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2009.
The company was founded back in 1895, and was originally known as Northern Electric and Manufacturing