The U.S. Justice Department cleared three major tech deals on Monday:
? Google Inc.’s $12.5 billion bid for Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., a maker of smartphones and other devices and owner of about 17,000 patents and 6,800 patent applications. The deal was announced in August.
? Nortel Networks Corp.’s $4.5 billion sale of its patent portfolio to a consortium of buyers that includes Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Research In Motion Ltd., EMC Corp, LM Ericsson AB and Sony Corp. The bankrupt Canadian company sold a portfolio that includes more than 6,000 patents and patent applications in a June bankruptcy auction. The Rockstar Bidco consortium offered five times more than Google’s initial bid of $900 million.
? Apple’s bid to acquire certain patents formerly owned by Novell Inc. CPTN Holdings LLC had acquired those patents last April for $450 million on behalf of a consortium that includes Apple, EMC, Microsoft and Oracle Corp. CPTN already agreed to several changes to the deal to win regulatory approval.
