“Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, Research in Motion Ltd and three other leading tech companies received court approval on Monday to buy wireless patents from the bankrupt Nortel Networks Corp for $4.5 billion,” Tom Hals reports for Reuters.
Judges in the United States and Canada approved the sale of 6,000 patents and applications, which fetched three times what some analysts expected from the four-day auction in June,” Hals reports. “The group of six that won the auction, a collection that bid as Rockstar Bidco LP, also included EMC Corp, Ericsson and Sony Corp.”
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Hais reports, “The sale spans wireless, data networking, optical, voice, Internet and semiconductor technologies. The most prized relate to emerging 4G standards such as long-term evolution (LTE)… The transaction is expected to close in about a month, according to Lisa Schweitzer of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, which represents Nortel.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Done deal. Sometimes justice actually moves quickly and decisively. This spares us much “antitrust authorities are reviewing the deal” FUD. Now, go cower in your hole, mole.
Best news on a Monday in a long time.
Finally the judges got something right
and fast!
Patent problems for Google looms like an angry storm- the iCloud a cometh! LOL
This is just bankruptcy court approval for the sale. Bankruptcy court operates on its own set of rules, and there is no consideration given to anti-trust issues, although those are mostly FUD being spread around. I don’t see how the US Justice Department could bring anti-trust allegations against Apple for acquiring LTE patents, when Apple isn’t a player in the mobile services provider industry anyway.
Sell our iPhones you can lease our 4G patents.
Sell Android phones and forget 4G capabilities on your network.
Yeah, *that* approach would sure keep the antitrust hounds at bay… *rolleyes*
A more rational suggestion would be that Apple would use their new 4G patents as bargaining chips to get better cross-licensing deals.
That leaves a gaping schedule open for the majority of Engadget and Gizmodo commenters. I wonder what they’re going to do with all that time.
Google will win the race… As always. Verizon didn’t even help Apple grow in marketshare… 6 months later! LOL
Huh?
You mean like Google’s wonderful set top box?
Marco, why do you insist on making inane comments that only a seriously unbalanced person would bother to make? Your “contributions” to this forum only make you look like the tool that you evidently are. Take some good advice and STFU.
Every village needs its idiot. Marco serves us well. I.e. I look forward to his nervous LOLs at the end of most of his messages/comments.
It is as if the LOLs magically transforms his misguided notions as facts. It’s legit now because he made fun of the Sheeple; the sky is indeed falling upon the house that Jobs hath built, any day now and not too soon. If you had any doubts, here’s teh LOL like in the sitcom. Pure comedy. Thank you Marco.
I think regular MDN readers need to realize that Marco is just a lame Zune Tang™ copy-cat (he is to Google as Zune Tang is to Apple). Notice that Marco is so defective he doesn’t even realize that his failure to register means that other can pretend to be him and put words in his mouth.
From now on, when you see a post by Marco, just think of the following:
1. Lame Zune Tang™ wanna-be.
2. Someone posting as Marco trying to make him look even more pathetic (not an easy task).
Take that “do no evil” Google thieves.
Buahahahahaaahaaaa!!
I meant the race to the bottom.
Eric… bite me!
Looser
Not quite a done deal, actually.
The Canadian government said last week they would look at the sale, and could still intervene and block it.
They’ve done this twice in the last five years, once to block an aerospace company (MDA) sale to a US company, and last year blocking a hostile bid for a potash company by an Australian company.
It’s due to a little clause that says major sales of Canadian assets to foreign companies must be of “net benefit” to Canada, and is separate from court approval (IIRC the MDA sale was approved by the courts before the government stepped in).
Not saying they will block it (because frankly, this sale is far better than any alternative), but they can, and have publicly mentioned the possibility.
And before people jump on our “liberal/socialist” Canadian government for blocking the free markets from working… it’s the Conservatives in power saying this, and who blocked the last two sales. In their current form they are the most right-wing party we’ve had in decades. Prior to the 2008 crash they tried following the US style deregulating of banks.