Ericsson-Nortel Deal Gets Green Light from Canadian Government

Infrastructure solutions vendor Ericsson announced a while ago that it planned on purchasing Nortel Networks' CDMA and LTE assets, and that it had placed a $1.13 billion bid for the businesses, something that made Research In Motion shout out loud that the Canadian government should step to the front and block the transaction.

However, although RIM has had something to say against the deal, it seems that the Canadian government decided to give the Ericsson-Nortel agreement a green light, at least this is what Canada's Industry Minister, Tony Clement, is reported to have stated. Apparently, the deal involved assets valued at around $171 million (182.5 million Canadian dollars), which is well below the threshold of 312 million Canadian dollars required for a review under the Investment Canada Act.

“There are no grounds to believe this transaction could be injurious to Canada's national security,” Clement said Wednesday, FierceWireless reports. At the same time, he also added that Ericsson “has the resources and customer base necessary to bring Canadian innovation to market. ... This deal is very beneficial to Canada.”

Given the fact that the deal is said to have been approved by bankruptcy courts back in July, the transaction might be closed sometime during the ongoing quarter. For what it's worth, RIM won't receive this as good news, especially since it urged the government to block the transaction so that Nortel's assets would remain Canadian property.

Moreover, RIM also stated that it tried to bid for the assets itself, but that it was blocked, yet Clement has reportedly stated that there is no evidence that this has happened. “My understanding is that any company that had concerns about the process was heard by the courts and any company that wanted those assets was able to bid on them,” he said. “I have not seen nor have I been advised of any attempt to block any qualified company from bidding.”