Earlier this month, an Apple-led consortium beat out Google in an auction of thousands of patents from bankrupt Nortel, bidding $4.5 billion for the entire package of patents. As noted by @SammyWalrusIV (via Business Insider), Apple 10-Q quarterly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that Apple's contribution to that effort totaled $2.6 billion.
On June 27, 2011, the Company, as part of a consortium, participated in the acquisition of Nortel's patent portfolio for an overall purchase price of $4.5 billion, of which the Company's contribution will be approximately $2.6 billion. This asset acquisition is subject to approval by various regulatory agencies.
Apple's partners in the deal included EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research in Motion, and Sony. Apple's $2.6 billion contribution represents 58% of the entire purchase price of the Nortel patent portfolio. The large number may add credence to the rumor to have paid $2 billion for "outright ownership" of Nortel's LTE (4G) patent technology.
And Apple may not be finished with its efforts to purchase intellectual property on the open market, as the company is said to be considering going up against Google again for a portfolio of 1,300 patents related to mobile phone technologies being offered by InterDigital.
Top Rated Comments
So what was Apple's alternative? To allow Google to get the patents, and do their part to abuse the already broken system?
Gotta love it how in 10 short years Apple has become the 10,000 ton Gorilla of the tech world. :eek: :D
It does seem that protecting your IP and keeping others from implementing it is almost impossible these days. It will be interesting to see what happens.