Apple Inc has joined the bidders for a trove of patents from Nortel Networks Corp, the bankrupt maker of phone equipment, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
Nortel, based in Mississauga, Ontario, said this week it has received a “significant level of interest” in the technology portfolio and will delay the auction by a week until June 27 to accommodate demand. The people familiar with Apple’s plan didn’t want to be identified because the bidding isn’t public.
The move would put Apple in competition with Google Inc for the 6,000 patents, which could be used in smartphone technology. Google, looking to bolster its Android software, offered US$900 million in April in what Nortel said was a starting point for an auction.
RPX Corp, a San -Francisco-based patent-buying firm, is considering a bid, an attorney for the company said last month.
Nortel filed for bankruptcy in January 2009 after a loss of US$5.8 billion, hurt by customers putting off spending on new equipment during the recession. Since then, Nortel has raised about US$3 billion to pay creditors by selling businesses. The patents portfolio is the last of the major assets to be sold.
Research In Motion Ltd, the maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, and phone-equipment supplier Ericsson AB are also weighing bids, people familiar with those firms’ plans have said.
The Nortel patents cover telecommunications technology used in wireless handsets and networks, as well as Internet search, semiconductors and social networking. The intellectual property may also help protect companies in legal disputes or generate licensing revenue.
The US Justice Department has been monitoring the bidding for the patents to see if they may be used to hinder competition in the wireless industry, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
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