Another published report Friday claims that final bids on Nortel's vast collection of 4,000 technology patents will be made within a few weeks.
Reuters News Agency quotes unnamed sources that Nortel has divided up the patents into blocks of technology such as wireless and networking infrastructure.
Hundreds of the patents were developed here in Ottawa at what used to be the research heart of Nortel.
Nortel will not comment on the report saying the sale process is confidential, but the patent portfolio has been up for sale for months.
This sale is reported to have drawn interest from companies such as Apple and Google. RIM also indicated more than a year ago that it wanted to buy some of the patents.
The patents could bring in more than $1 billion and will truly mark the end of Nortel as all of its business units have been sold.
Reuters' source claims one round of bidding on the patents has already taken place.
Next month, will mark two years since Nortel went into the bankruptcy process.
The Canadian government is not expected to oppose this sell-off of Canadian know-how in key technology fields. If the patents are sold in blocks the amount of each sale may not be enough to trigger any automatic review.
