Jul 1, 2011 16:51 GMT  ·  By

Nortel Networks Corporation has just announced that its subsidiary Nortel Networks Limited (NNL) has successfully concluded an auction for remaining Nortel patents and patent applications, and that it will sell these for US$4.5 billion.

The winning bidder for these patents is a consortium that consists of Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion and Sony.

The deal involves a number of no less than 6,000 patents and patent applications involving wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical, voice, internet, service provider, semiconductors and other patents.

As Nortel puts it, the extensive patent portfolio it accounts for covers almost all aspects of telecommunications, as well as a series of other domains, such as Internet search and social networking.

“Following a very robust auction, we are pleased at the outcome of the auction of this extensive patent portfolio,” said George Riedel, chief strategy officer and president of Business Units, Nortel.

“The size and dollar value for this transaction is unprecedented, as was the significant interest in the portfolio among major companies around the world.”

Google was also a bidder for these patents, but it offered far less than what the consortium did. In early April, the company said that it would pay $900M for the 6,000 patents and patent applications Nortel was auctioning.

Nortel Networks Limited (NNL), and certain of its other subsidiaries, including Nortel Networks Inc. and Nortel Networks UK Limited (in administration), also unveiled that the sale is still subject to applicable Canadian and U.S. Court approvals.

A joint hearing will be held on July 11, 2011. Nortel also announced that it would work diligently with the consortium to ensure that the deal got closed in the third quarter of the ongoing year.

“As previously announced, Nortel does not expect that the Company’s common shareholders or the NNL preferred shareholders will receive any value from Nortel’s creditor protection proceedings and expects that the proceedings will result in the cancellation of these equity interests,” the company concluded.