RIM, Nortel were close to LTE sale: Lazaridis

10.08.2009
Research in Motion Inc. was interested in buying Nortel Networks Corp.'s Long Term Evolution patents months before Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection in January.

This was revealed Friday by Mike Lazaridis, co-chief executive officer of Waterloo, Canada based RIM in testimony before the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology.

"We were so close to announcing a few days after we thought we had a handshake," he said. "We were exchanging e-mails about a press release within a matter of days."

LM Ericsson last month agreed to buy the business unit of Nortel that manufactures products for wireless carriers using code division multiple access (CDMA) technology. Ericsson's agreement resulted from an auction July 24, which was preceded by a "stalking horse" bid from Nokia Siemens Networks in June.

Nortel is trying to sell its business units and has been operating under bankruptcy protection since Jan. 14.

The emergency hearing Friday of the parliamentary committee was prompted by concerns from RIM officials and politicians including Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan.