Google lost to Apple in the Nortel round but it looks like Patent Bidding War II is coming real soon. According to MacdailyNews via Bloomberg, a company most of us never heard of, InterDigital Inc, has hired a banker to help them auction off 1,300 mobile related patents.
The value is considered to be worth more than $3.1 billion. Considering that the Nortel bidding opened with a $900 million bid from Google and ended up being $4.5 billion offered by Apple and friends, this could cost the winner quite a bit.
Apple and Google are obvious contenders as are the parties involved in the Nortel bid. And judging by the sickening $11 billion added to the bank by Apple in the third quarter, Apple and a couple of anti-Android companies can go nuts (Google added $3.5 billion...which in and of itself is no small change either).
What I like to see is that HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and maybe Lenovo help Google out. The last time, Sony, an Android device maker, sided with Apple while Intel was the only one with deep pockets to side with Google.
On another point, will Apple, Microsoft, and RIM work together to thwart Google again? RIM, despite losing share in the marketplace is still very rich and Microsoft has enough cash to throw $8.5 billion at Skype.
It would so awesome if someone could live-blog the bidding.
Source: MacDailyNews, Bloomberg
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