back to article Apple paid $2.6bn of $4.5bn Nortel patent grab

Apple has revealed that it paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.6bn for its share of the recent Nortel patent-acquisition deal. "On June 27, 2011, the Company, as part of a consortium, participated in the acquisition of Nortel's patent portfolio for an overall purchase price of $4.5 billion, of which the Company's …

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  1. Oddbin

    title

    The whole battle seemed quite seedy at the time and it doesn't get any better the more you learn about it.

  2. NoneSuch Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    If only...

    Some tempestuous billionaire had bought them and dropped them into the public domain we could have Open Source handsets with development project on Sourceforge.

    Apple, Microsoft, RIM, EMC, Ericsson and Sony. Name six companies that will never see a Pound off me.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      About your cunning plan

      It's brilliant, fantastic just one slight flaw: how do you think billionaire's become such? By giving their more-or-less hard-earned gains away?

      Kudos for Google for forcing up the price of something they never wanted.

  3. Wang N Staines

    Yes at last

    Apple can claim to be innovative!!!!!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Lets's see now ...

    6,000 patents

    $4.5 billon dosh

    Erm, 4.5.10^9 / 6.10^3 ~ 4.5.10^6 / 6 ~ .75.10^6 ~ 750,000 dollars per patent = seems cheap yes?

    I mean like, how much is a patent worth these days and do they grow on trees?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    New patent lawsuit in 5...4...3...2...1...

    Now watch as Apple goes patent trolling with their new portfolio and still claim that they are the "innovative" ones.

  6. John Tserkezis

    I'm so glad I stopped working on Nortel gear.

    I would never work on, or for any company that's even remotly associated with Apple. Or Sony, or....

    I have morals you know.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Coffee/keyboard

    Lion's share...

    Icon says it all!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bankers

    "Either they were supremely confident or they were bored" - does this mean that bankers get scared if their massive bonuses arent a perfectly round number?

    "My bonus is a third of a million pounds? WooHoo... oh no, the threes repeat infinitely"

  9. Mikel
    Pint

    Apple got in bed with Microsoft to buy these patents

    They'll find the deal unsavory eventually. Microsoft's partners almost always do. You would think word had got around by now.

  10. web_bod
    Flame

    not so clever now

    ""The bidding process, as reported by Reuters, was at times surreal, with Google making bids based upon such mathematical concepts as Brun's constant, the Meissel-Mertens constant, and even pi – one Google bid was, yes, $3.14159bn."

    I hope Apple & co sue the arse off them - Google need to grow-up

    1. Colin Guthrie
      FAIL

      Sue for what? Originality?

      Sue them for what? Not using round numbers? That would be new depths of low even for Apple's legal department!

      You've clearly never been in a bidding war before. Using odd numbers or "a little bit more" is extremely common. Our house buying system in Scotland is based on the "Offers Over" scheme. When bidding you pretty much make up your mind about what you want to pay, say £230k then "add a little on" just in case someone else bids £230k. Of course everyone does this, so you try and think of *something* original such that someone's £230,001.00 bid doesn't gazump your bit of £230,000.01... e.g. £230,012.34 or similar.

      So this is quite standard practice.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      "$3.14159bn"...So THAT'S how I lost out on my bid...

      Damn...and I thought MY bid of $3.141589bn was enough.

      Curse you Google!

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