TORONTO - Google Inc., the Internet search giant that's becoming a growing force in wireless communications with its Android operating system, kicked off the bidding for Nortel Networks patent portfolio with an offer of $900 million.
Google said Monday it views the acquisition of the Nortel patents as a defence against "an explosion" of patent litigation.
If successful, Google hopes the Nortel patents will help it and its partners to innovate and also "create a disincentive" for others to sue Google, said Kent Walker, Google's general counsel and a senior vice-president.
"Google is a relatively young company, and although we have a growing number of patents, many of our competitors have larger portfolios given their longer histories," Walker wrote on Google's official press blog.
"So after a lot of thought, we've decided to bid for Nortel's patent portfolio in the company's bankruptcy auction."
Nortel said it will file the so-called stalking horse agreement between it and Google in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware and seek approval for an auction process that will allows other bidders to come up with a better deal.
A similar request will be filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, which is overseeing the Canadian portion of Nortel's wind up. The winning bid will require approvals by courts in both countries.
Google's Android operating system been making headway against Apple's iPhone and iPad and other smartphones and tablet operating systems, including Nokia's Symbian, Microsoft's Windows Mobile and Research In Motion's BlackBerry.
Even RIM (TSX:RIM), the Waterloo, Ont.-based company that has dominated some segments of the smartphone market with its BlackBerry devices, has that said Android applications will eventually work on its PlayBook tablet.
Google (Nasdaq:GOOG), the California-based owner of the YouTube video site, Google Earth and numerous other technology businesses, has also been dabbling with telecommunications networks.
Most recently, it announced plans to launch an ultra-fast fibre optics network for consumers in Kansas City, Kan.
Acquiring Nortel's patents makes sense for Google, more from a financial than a technological sense, because it gives them more cards to play in competing with other technology giants, said CanaccordGenuity analyst Heath Terry.
While Android is a way for Google to get its search technology onto handsets, the Kansas City fibre optic network is more of an experimental environment to find out "what the Internet could be," Terry said.
"Google's hoping that it becomes a self-perpetuating thing that expands out to the point that the existing network owners, the guys like Verizon and AT&T, will want to make the investment in building these networks out on their own."
Brahm Eiley, president of Toronto-Convergence Consulting Group, said Google still gets the vast majority of its revenue from advertising and has been unsuccessful in making it as a content provider.
"And so Google has been looking for various ways to move into other industry spaces," Eiley said.
But he remains to be convinced that Google will have anything to teach the network heavyweights about high-speed fibre optic networks.
"Verizon spent over $20 billion on this. I'm not sure what Google can show them," Eiley said.
Nortel, which was more than a century old when Google was founded in 1996, had counted almost all of the large U.S. telecom networks as customers for decades -- offering both wireless and wireline equipment.
Terry said there are other companies that would be big enough to bid against Google if they want, including Cisco Networks of San Jose, Calif. (Nassdaq:CSCO) and some of the European equipment makers.
"I'm sure there will be other bidders. Google was the first to raise its hand but I would be surprised if this stops here," Terry said.
He wouldn't guess how much the portfolio would fetch, saying only Nortel and a few others would know enough about what's in it to make a realistic estimate.
The agreement with Google includes the planned sale of approximately 6,000 patents and patent applications including fourth-generation wireless, data networking, optical, voice, Internet, semiconductors and other patent portfolios.
George Riedel, chief strategy officer and president of business units for Nortel, described the bidding as an "unprecedented opportunity" to buy a compelling patent portfolio.
"We look forward to what we hope will be a robust auction, following the requisite court approvals, currently expected to be held in June 2011," Riedel said in a statement
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 it was so advanced that it would take years to determine whether it would be a market winner.
Ten years ago, at its height, Nortel was among the world's most advanced developers of telecom equipment. It was felled by numerous problems, including changing market conditions, economic upheaval and an accounting scandal.
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 scattered throughout the world.
Nortel has said it doesn't expect its common shareholders, or holders of Nortion Networks Ltd. preferred shares, will receive any of the proceeds from its various asset sales.
