The lineup of companies bidding on Nortel's patent portfolio is growing, with the addition of Apple to the list.
Bloomberg News reports Friday U.S antitrust regulators have approved Apple as a bidder. They join Google, which has the opening bid of $900 million.
It appears Microsoft, HP and Nokia may also bid since they went to court to oppose Google's bid as something that would reduce competition.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Intel, Ericsson and major patent licensing firm RPX will bid. Canada's RIM is touted as another contender for the 6.000 patents that cover a wide range of key communications technologies.
Last week Nortel announced it was delaying the auction by a week to this coming Monday, June 27.
A Nortel e-mail statement sent to CTV Ottawa said the delay was put in place "to ensure there has been sufficient time to continue discussions and address matters with all bidders in order to ultimately benefit the creditors of the company with a robust auction. Due to confidentiality provisions, we are not at liberty to disclose identity of bidders."
The actual deadline for companies to get in as a bidder was June 13, so all the bidders are already in place.
Speculation is that because of the interest and the deep financial pockets of many bidders, the auction price will soar well past one billion dollars.
The auction will be held in the offices of a New York law firm and teams of lawyers will shuttle bids back and forth.
Previous bids for Nortel business units have taken a few days. The patents are the last asset that Nortel owns.
Ironically, it was June two years ago when Nortel admitted they would not restructure and resume business; rather they were bankrupt and would sell off all assets.
The asset sales will total over $4 billion.
