You’ve got to hand it to Research in Motion (RIMM); it’s making an impassioned and nationalistic pitch for Nortel’s (NRTLQ.PK) LTE patents.
At an emergency parliamentary hearing on Friday looking into Nortel’s plan to sell its CDMA wireless business and its LTE R&D business to Ericsson (ERIC) for $1.13-billion, RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said Nortel’s LTE patent portfolio and development work is,”nothing short of a national treasure that Canada must not lose.”
He also provided details on negotiations held between RIM and Nortel, and the fact that RIM thought it had a deal for Nortel’s LTE assets.
As I have argued before, RIM’s master strategy is getting hold of the LTE patents. The last-minute bid for the CDMA and LTE R&D unit, and Lazaridis’ appearance in Ottawa on Friday are all part of a plan to gain Ottawa’s support for a future bid for the LTE patents.
For more details on Friday's hearing, check out Unstrung.
