It’s the patents …

Nortel was a major player in the telecommunications market, especially in researching new products and standards.  Even if you don’t recognize the name you have seen a NorStar Meridian phone in person or on TV, but you don’t see too much of them anymore.  After taking a big hit during the dot bomb and another after some accounting malpractices were discovered, Nortel took a dive that it, and many Canadian’s pension plans, never recovered from. 

So why is Google offering $900 million for it’s decaying corpse?  That particular body owns in the neighbourhood of 6,000 patents and patent applications covering basic parts of wired and wireless data and voice networking, as well as internet, service provider, and semiconductor technologies.  The Register is quick to point out that the 37 current lawsuits against Android have made Google wise to the idea that patent holders don’t tend to sue themselves.

Why would Google buy a defunct Canadian phone system maker? - General Tech 2

"Google has bid $900m for Nortel’s patent portfolio, saying it hopes to use the portfolio to deter lawsuits against not only Google but also partners and open-source developers working on projects such as Android and Chrome."

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