Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease Reports Nortel sells remaining patents for US$4.5B to consortium that includes RIM
VANCOUVER, BC (July 4, 2011) Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease Reports Nortel Networks Corp. has auctioned off its remaining patents to a “rock star” group of technology companies in the biggest patent sale in history, ending a massive selloff that generated US$7.7 billion for the insolvent former Canadian technology giant.
A consortium that includes leading smartphone makers Apple and Research In Motion Ltd. (TSX:RIM) and computer giant Microsoft will pay US$4.5 billion in cash for about 6,000 patents and patent applications belonging to Nortel.
Since Nortel declared bankruptcy in early 2009, the company has already sold US$3.2 billion of operating units — bringing the total value of the company’s selloff to US$7.7 billion — one of the biggest asset sales in Canadian history.
The US$4.5 billion pricetag on the Nortel patents is five times higher than an initial bid by Google Inc. that was used as a floor price to launch the auction earlier this week.
That bid reflects the true market value of Nortel’s patented technology — which touches nearly every aspect of telecommunications, including Internet search and social networking.
“This is by far the biggest patent auction in history both in terms of number of patents sold and in terms of the price tag,” Alexander Poltorak, a New York patent lawyer, said Friday a few hours after the patent sale was announced.
Poltorak called the buying group a “rock star consortium” and said “nobody expected the price to go this high.”
“Patents have become the currency of the knowledge-based economy. As of today, patents graduated from an obscure and arcane area of law to the front lines of business.
“Had Nortel’s management realized they had been sitting on the goldmine of patents, the Nortel bankruptcy could have been averted through patent monetization.”
Besides RIM , Microsoft and Apple, other members of the consortium are EMC, Ericsson and Sony. RIM said its portion of the purchase is worth about US$770 million.
The sale of the last of Nortel’s technology assets is expected to be completed in the third quarter and is subject to approvals from Canadian and U.S. bankruptcy courts in a joint July 11 hearing.
Another patent expert described the sales price as unprecedented, similar to what companies pay to buy enttire companies, not just their patents.
“What you are looking at is a list of the companies that are in this incredibly active battle for the mobile computing platform,” Ron Epstein, CEO of Epicenter IP Group, a patent broker not involved in the Nortel auction.
“Clearly patents are being deployed as an important strategy asset in winning that battle.”
Having a patent could allow one smartphone to have distinguishing features over another, or it could raise the cost for a rival to make the product if it has to pay licensing fees, Epstein said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Poltorak, founder and CEO of General Patent Corporation, a patent licensing and enforcement firm, said there were some surprises in the consortium of the world’s best-known tech companies.
“No one expected Microsoft to be part of it, as Microsoft claimed it had world-wide licenses on Nortel patents and it complained about possible antitrust issues arising out of sale of naked patents stripped of their contractual encumbrances,” he said.
Poltorak added that it was also strange that Apple recently settled a patent suit with Nokia where it agreed to pay a large sum of money and ongoing royalties, just a few weeks before winning the Nortel auction.
The consortium prevailed in an auction this week over Google (Nasdaq:GOOG), which had said it planned to bid $900 million in cash for all of Nortel’s remaining patents and patent applications.
Phones running Google’s Android system compete with Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry devices.
In a statement Friday, Google general counsel Kent Walker called the outcome “disappointing for anyone who believes that open innovation benefits users and promotes creativity and competition.”
“We will keep working to reduce the current flood of patent litigation that hurts both innovators and consumers,” he said.
Google had said it wanted the patents to defend itself against patent lawsuits from other companies until U.S. Congress enacts broader changes to the patent system to help reduce such litigation. Google gives away its Android software for free, counting on its wider use to drive usage of other Google services, such as search and maps.
Nortel’s court protection from creditors had earlier been extended to Dec. 14, to give the company more time to complete the sale of its assets and other restructuring efforts.
“The size and dollar value for this transaction is unprecedented, as was the significant interest in the portfolio among major companies around the world,” George Riedel, Nortel’s chief strategy officer, said in a release at midnight announcing the patent sale.
Nortel had previously announced it did not expect its shareholders to receive any value from its creditor protection proceedings.
Nortel, which once employed 95,000 people around the world and was worth nearly $300 billion, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. and Canada in early 2009.
The company was hobbled by a sharp downturn in orders from phone companies and looming debt payments. According to a filing last fall, Nortel had just under US$10 billion in total liabilities, including debt, at Sept. 30, 2010.
Over the last couple of years, Nortel has sold its wireless network business to Sweden’s Ericsson for $1.13 billion and its enterprise solutions business to U.S.-based Avaya Inc for $689 million, among others.
Ten years ago, at its height, Nortel was among the world’s most advanced developers of telecom equipment and accounted for a third of the value of all companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
But the company was felled by changing market conditions, economic upheaval and an accounting scandal that devastated its stock price.
Although Nortel was by far Canada’s largest spender on research and development, some of its work ended up as technological dead ends — at least temporarily — while at other times its innovations were so advanced that it would take years to determine whether they would be market winners.
Much of Nortel’s research and development was done in Ottawa, at a facility formerly known as Bell Northern Research, although Nortel also had research facilities around the world.
Some 400 former Nortel employees found themselves abruptly cut off from their long-term disability benefits this year, as part of a court-approved pension settlement between Nortel and its former employees.
Clearlease Equipment Lease Financing, Commercial Financing Mortgage Refinance Mortgage Auto Lease, Vendor Program – Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease
Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease are specialists in; lease, equipment leasing, leasing, lease equipment, equipment lease canada, equipment financing, financing, leasing companies, leases, equipment leases, lease financing, equipment lease finance, business financing, lease new, lease used, commercial equipment lease, business finance, business lease, truck lease, truck financing, auto financing, commercial vehicle lease, business financing specialist, leasing services Calgary, alberta, lease canada, bobcat, skid steer, excavator, loader, heavy equipment.
Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease Video Link: http://youtu.be/f_kk7WJa7Uk
For more information please visit us at: http://www.clearlease.com/Career-Opportunities.html
About Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease
Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease Commercial (DLC Clearlease/Clearlease.com) is a fully diversified Lease Finance Mortgage Banking Brokerage Company specializing in Equipment Leasing, Automobile Leasing, Residential, Commercial Lending/Mortgage Financing. DLC Clearlease possesses the capability to accommodate financing needs ranging from a small second Home Mortgage to a Multi-Million Dollar Commercial Projects. No mortgage is too small or too large for this integrated Company.
Equipment Lease Financing in Vancouver, Surrey, Delta, Richmond, Langley, New Westminster, North Vancouer, West Vancouver, B.C. Also offering Automobile Lease Financing and Mortgage information. Founded by the Pidgeon brothers Alexander Pidgeon and Rene Pidgeon.
You may have recently seen a Dominion Lending advertisement on such media outlets as: Global News, CTV News, CBC Television, Rogers Sportsnet or possibly heard the great Don Cherry, a Canadian Sports legend, discuss Dominion Lending Centres.
Contact DLC Clearlease.com:
Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease
HEAD OFFICE, Bentall Two, Suite 900, 555 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V7X 1M8, CANADA.
Mr. Alexander Pidgeon, Editor in Chief
Tel: (604) 696-1221 ext. 199
eMail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.clearlease.com
News: http://clearlease.com/category/equipment-lease-blog/feed/rss
Twitter: @clearlease
###
Video Link: http://youtu.be/f_kk7WJa7Uk
VANCOUVER, BC (July 4, 2011) Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease Reports Nortel Networks Corp. has auctioned off its remaining patents to a “rock star” group of technology companies in the biggest patent sale in history, ending a massive selloff that generated US$7.7 billion for the insolvent former Canadian technology giant.
A consortium that includes leading smartphone makers Apple and Research In Motion Ltd. (TSX:RIM) and computer giant Microsoft will pay US$4.5 billion in cash for about 6,000 patents and patent applications belonging to Nortel.
Since Nortel declared bankruptcy in early 2009, the company has already sold US$3.2 billion of operating units — bringing the total value of the company’s selloff to US$7.7 billion — one of the biggest asset sales in Canadian history.
The US$4.5 billion pricetag on the Nortel patents is five times higher than an initial bid by Google Inc. that was used as a floor price to launch the auction earlier this week.
That bid reflects the true market value of Nortel’s patented technology — which touches nearly every aspect of telecommunications, including Internet search and social networking.
“This is by far the biggest patent auction in history both in terms of number of patents sold and in terms of the price tag,” Alexander Poltorak, a New York patent lawyer, said Friday a few hours after the patent sale was announced.
Poltorak called the buying group a “rock star consortium” and said “nobody expected the price to go this high.”
“Patents have become the currency of the knowledge-based economy. As of today, patents graduated from an obscure and arcane area of law to the front lines of business.
“Had Nortel’s management realized they had been sitting on the goldmine of patents, the Nortel bankruptcy could have been averted through patent monetization.”
Besides RIM , Microsoft and Apple, other members of the consortium are EMC, Ericsson and Sony. RIM said its portion of the purchase is worth about US$770 million.
The sale of the last of Nortel’s technology assets is expected to be completed in the third quarter and is subject to approvals from Canadian and U.S. bankruptcy courts in a joint July 11 hearing.
Another patent expert described the sales price as unprecedented, similar to what companies pay to buy enttire companies, not just their patents.
“What you are looking at is a list of the companies that are in this incredibly active battle for the mobile computing platform,” Ron Epstein, CEO of Epicenter IP Group, a patent broker not involved in the Nortel auction.
“Clearly patents are being deployed as an important strategy asset in winning that battle.”
Having a patent could allow one smartphone to have distinguishing features over another, or it could raise the cost for a rival to make the product if it has to pay licensing fees, Epstein said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Poltorak, founder and CEO of General Patent Corporation, a patent licensing and enforcement firm, said there were some surprises in the consortium of the world’s best-known tech companies.
“No one expected Microsoft to be part of it, as Microsoft claimed it had world-wide licenses on Nortel patents and it complained about possible antitrust issues arising out of sale of naked patents stripped of their contractual encumbrances,” he said.
Poltorak added that it was also strange that Apple recently settled a patent suit with Nokia where it agreed to pay a large sum of money and ongoing royalties, just a few weeks before winning the Nortel auction.
The consortium prevailed in an auction this week over Google (Nasdaq:GOOG), which had said it planned to bid $900 million in cash for all of Nortel’s remaining patents and patent applications.
Phones running Google’s Android system compete with Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry devices.
In a statement Friday, Google general counsel Kent Walker called the outcome “disappointing for anyone who believes that open innovation benefits users and promotes creativity and competition.”
“We will keep working to reduce the current flood of patent litigation that hurts both innovators and consumers,” he said.
Google had said it wanted the patents to defend itself against patent lawsuits from other companies until U.S. Congress enacts broader changes to the patent system to help reduce such litigation. Google gives away its Android software for free, counting on its wider use to drive usage of other Google services, such as search and maps.
Nortel’s court protection from creditors had earlier been extended to Dec. 14, to give the company more time to complete the sale of its assets and other restructuring efforts.
“The size and dollar value for this transaction is unprecedented, as was the significant interest in the portfolio among major companies around the world,” George Riedel, Nortel’s chief strategy officer, said in a release at midnight announcing the patent sale.
Nortel had previously announced it did not expect its shareholders to receive any value from its creditor protection proceedings.
Nortel, which once employed 95,000 people around the world and was worth nearly $300 billion, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. and Canada in early 2009.
The company was hobbled by a sharp downturn in orders from phone companies and looming debt payments. According to a filing last fall, Nortel had just under US$10 billion in total liabilities, including debt, at Sept. 30, 2010.
Over the last couple of years, Nortel has sold its wireless network business to Sweden’s Ericsson for $1.13 billion and its enterprise solutions business to U.S.-based Avaya Inc for $689 million, among others.
Ten years ago, at its height, Nortel was among the world’s most advanced developers of telecom equipment and accounted for a third of the value of all companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
But the company was felled by changing market conditions, economic upheaval and an accounting scandal that devastated its stock price.
Although Nortel was by far Canada’s largest spender on research and development, some of its work ended up as technological dead ends — at least temporarily — while at other times its innovations were so advanced that it would take years to determine whether they would be market winners.
Much of Nortel’s research and development was done in Ottawa, at a facility formerly known as Bell Northern Research, although Nortel also had research facilities around the world.
Some 400 former Nortel employees found themselves abruptly cut off from their long-term disability benefits this year, as part of a court-approved pension settlement between Nortel and its former employees.
Clearlease Equipment Lease Financing, Commercial Financing Mortgage Refinance Mortgage Auto Lease, Vendor Program – Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease
Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease are specialists in; lease, equipment leasing, leasing, lease equipment, equipment lease canada, equipment financing, financing, leasing companies, leases, equipment leases, lease financing, equipment lease finance, business financing, lease new, lease used, commercial equipment lease, business finance, business lease, truck lease, truck financing, auto financing, commercial vehicle lease, business financing specialist, leasing services Calgary, alberta, lease canada, bobcat, skid steer, excavator, loader, heavy equipment.
Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease Video Link: http://youtu.be/f_kk7WJa7Uk
For more information please visit us at: http://www.clearlease.com/Career-Opportunities.html
About Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease
Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease Commercial (DLC Clearlease/Clearlease.com) is a fully diversified Lease Finance Mortgage Banking Brokerage Company specializing in Equipment Leasing, Automobile Leasing, Residential, Commercial Lending/Mortgage Financing. DLC Clearlease possesses the capability to accommodate financing needs ranging from a small second Home Mortgage to a Multi-Million Dollar Commercial Projects. No mortgage is too small or too large for this integrated Company.
Equipment Lease Financing in Vancouver, Surrey, Delta, Richmond, Langley, New Westminster, North Vancouer, West Vancouver, B.C. Also offering Automobile Lease Financing and Mortgage information. Founded by the Pidgeon brothers Alexander Pidgeon and Rene Pidgeon.
You may have recently seen a Dominion Lending advertisement on such media outlets as: Global News, CTV News, CBC Television, Rogers Sportsnet or possibly heard the great Don Cherry, a Canadian Sports legend, discuss Dominion Lending Centres.
Contact DLC Clearlease.com:
Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease
HEAD OFFICE, Bentall Two, Suite 900, 555 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V7X 1M8, CANADA.
Mr. Alexander Pidgeon, Editor in Chief
Tel: (604) 696-1221 ext. 199
eMail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.clearlease.com
News: http://clearlease.com/category/equipment-lease-blog/feed/rss
Twitter: @clearlease
###
Video Link: http://youtu.be/f_kk7WJa7Uk
Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease Reports Nortel sells remaining patents for US$4.5B to consortium that includes RIM
VANCOUVER, BC (July 4, 2011) Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease Reports Nortel Networks Corp. has auctioned off its remaining patents to a “rock star” group of technology companies in the biggest patent sale in history, ending a massive selloff that generated US$7.7 billion for the insolvent former Canadian technology giant.
A consortium that includes leading smartphone makers Apple and Research In Motion Ltd. (TSX:RIM) and computer giant Microsoft will pay US$4.5 billion in cash for about 6,000 patents and patent applications belonging to Nortel.
Since Nortel declared bankruptcy in early 2009, the company has already sold US$3.2 billion of operating units — bringing the total value of the company’s selloff to US$7.7 billion — one of the biggest asset sales in Canadian history.
The US$4.5 billion pricetag on the Nortel patents is five times higher than an initial bid by Google Inc. that was used as a floor price to launch the auction earlier this week.
That bid reflects the true market value of Nortel’s patented technology — which touches nearly every aspect of telecommunications, including Internet search and social networking.
“This is by far the biggest patent auction in history both in terms of number of patents sold and in terms of the price tag,” Alexander Poltorak, a New York patent lawyer, said Friday a few hours after the patent sale was announced.
Poltorak called the buying group a “rock star consortium” and said “nobody expected the price to go this high.”
“Patents have become the currency of the knowledge-based economy. As of today, patents graduated from an obscure and arcane area of law to the front lines of business.
“Had Nortel’s management realized they had been sitting on the goldmine of patents, the Nortel bankruptcy could have been averted through patent monetization.”
Besides RIM , Microsoft and Apple, other members of the consortium are EMC, Ericsson and Sony. RIM said its portion of the purchase is worth about US$770 million.
The sale of the last of Nortel’s technology assets is expected to be completed in the third quarter and is subject to approvals from Canadian and U.S. bankruptcy courts in a joint July 11 hearing.
Another patent expert described the sales price as unprecedented, similar to what companies pay to buy enttire companies, not just their patents.
“What you are looking at is a list of the companies that are in this incredibly active battle for the mobile computing platform,” Ron Epstein, CEO of Epicenter IP Group, a patent broker not involved in the Nortel auction.
“Clearly patents are being deployed as an important strategy asset in winning that battle.”
Having a patent could allow one smartphone to have distinguishing features over another, or it could raise the cost for a rival to make the product if it has to pay licensing fees, Epstein said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Poltorak, founder and CEO of General Patent Corporation, a patent licensing and enforcement firm, said there were some surprises in the consortium of the world’s best-known tech companies.
“No one expected Microsoft to be part of it, as Microsoft claimed it had world-wide licenses on Nortel patents and it complained about possible antitrust issues arising out of sale of naked patents stripped of their contractual encumbrances,” he said.
Poltorak added that it was also strange that Apple recently settled a patent suit with Nokia where it agreed to pay a large sum of money and ongoing royalties, just a few weeks before winning the Nortel auction.
The consortium prevailed in an auction this week over Google (Nasdaq:GOOG), which had said it planned to bid $900 million in cash for all of Nortel’s remaining patents and patent applications.
Phones running Google’s Android system compete with Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry devices.
In a statement Friday, Google general counsel Kent Walker called the outcome “disappointing for anyone who believes that open innovation benefits users and promotes creativity and competition.”
“We will keep working to reduce the current flood of patent litigation that hurts both innovators and consumers,” he said.
Google had said it wanted the patents to defend itself against patent lawsuits from other companies until U.S. Congress enacts broader changes to the patent system to help reduce such litigation. Google gives away its Android software for free, counting on its wider use to drive usage of other Google services, such as search and maps.
Nortel’s court protection from creditors had earlier been extended to Dec. 14, to give the company more time to complete the sale of its assets and other restructuring efforts.
“The size and dollar value for this transaction is unprecedented, as was the significant interest in the portfolio among major companies around the world,” George Riedel, Nortel’s chief strategy officer, said in a release at midnight announcing the patent sale.
Nortel had previously announced it did not expect its shareholders to receive any value from its creditor protection proceedings.
Nortel, which once employed 95,000 people around the world and was worth nearly $300 billion, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. and Canada in early 2009.
The company was hobbled by a sharp downturn in orders from phone companies and looming debt payments. According to a filing last fall, Nortel had just under US$10 billion in total liabilities, including debt, at Sept. 30, 2010.
Over the last couple of years, Nortel has sold its wireless network business to Sweden’s Ericsson for $1.13 billion and its enterprise solutions business to U.S.-based Avaya Inc for $689 million, among others.
Ten years ago, at its height, Nortel was among the world’s most advanced developers of telecom equipment and accounted for a third of the value of all companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
But the company was felled by changing market conditions, economic upheaval and an accounting scandal that devastated its stock price.
Although Nortel was by far Canada’s largest spender on research and development, some of its work ended up as technological dead ends — at least temporarily — while at other times its innovations were so advanced that it would take years to determine whether they would be market winners.
Much of Nortel’s research and development was done in Ottawa, at a facility formerly known as Bell Northern Research, although Nortel also had research facilities around the world.
Some 400 former Nortel employees found themselves abruptly cut off from their long-term disability benefits this year, as part of a court-approved pension settlement between Nortel and its former employees.
Clearlease Equipment Lease Financing, Commercial Financing Mortgage Refinance Mortgage Auto Lease, Vendor Program – Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease
Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease are specialists in; lease, equipment leasing, leasing, lease equipment, equipment lease canada, equipment financing, financing, leasing companies, leases, equipment leases, lease financing, equipment lease finance, business financing, lease new, lease used, commercial equipment lease, business finance, business lease, truck lease, truck financing, auto financing, commercial vehicle lease, business financing specialist, leasing services Calgary, alberta, lease canada, bobcat, skid steer, excavator, loader, heavy equipment.
Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease Video Link: http://youtu.be/f_kk7WJa7Uk
For more information please visit us at: http://www.clearlease.com/Career-Opportunities.html
About Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease
Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease Commercial (DLC Clearlease/Clearlease.com) is a fully diversified Lease Finance Mortgage Banking Brokerage Company specializing in Equipment Leasing, Automobile Leasing, Residential, Commercial Lending/Mortgage Financing. DLC Clearlease possesses the capability to accommodate financing needs ranging from a small second Home Mortgage to a Multi-Million Dollar Commercial Projects. No mortgage is too small or too large for this integrated Company.
Equipment Lease Financing in Vancouver, Surrey, Delta, Richmond, Langley, New Westminster, North Vancouer, West Vancouver, B.C. Also offering Automobile Lease Financing and Mortgage information. Founded by the Pidgeon brothers Alexander Pidgeon and Rene Pidgeon.
You may have recently seen a Dominion Lending advertisement on such media outlets as: Global News, CTV News, CBC Television, Rogers Sportsnet or possibly heard the great Don Cherry, a Canadian Sports legend, discuss Dominion Lending Centres.
Contact DLC Clearlease.com:
Dominion Lending Centres Clearlease
HEAD OFFICE, Bentall Two, Suite 900, 555 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V7X 1M8, CANADA.
Mr. Alexander Pidgeon, Editor in Chief
Tel: (604) 696-1221 ext. 199
eMail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.clearlease.com
News: http://clearlease.com/category/equipment-lease-blog/feed/rss
Twitter: @clearlease
###
Video Link: http://youtu.be/f_kk7WJa7Uk