A consortium of six companies, including Apple and Microsoft, has purchased bankrupt telecommunications firm Nortel’s remaining patent portfolio for $4.5bn (€3bn).
The other consortium members are Sony, EMC, Ericsson and Research In Motion.
The sale marks the last major assets to be sold by Nortel.
Google had opened the bidding in April at $900m (€620m), but it, along with Intel, lost out in the auction of Nortel’s assets, which includes more than 6,000 patents and patent applications, including areas such as data networking and semiconductors.
Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2009 and obtained a court order this past week to extend its bankruptcy protection to 14 December. The company has been selling assets since early 2009 and has raised about $3.2bn (€2.2bn).
