A group including Apple and Research In Motion has paid $4.5 billion to snatch Nortel Networks' patents from under the noses of Google and Intel.
Bankrupt Nortel had put up for sale 6,000 patents and patent applications in the largest public sale of its kind, a potential treasure trove for latecomers to the market such as Apple, Google and Intel.
The price was about three times what the sale had been expected to raise, underlining the defensive value of intellectual property in the fast-changing telecoms world, where established players are seeking to keep out newer rivals.
'The size and dollar value for this transaction is unprecedented, as was the significant interest in the portfolio among major companies around the world,' said Nortel's chief strategy officer and president of business units George Riedel.
Toronto-based Nortel reiterated that it did not expect shareholders to receive any value from the sale, part of its creditor protection proceedings, and said it expected equity interests to be cancelled as a result of the proceedings.
The winning parties - the others are Microsoft EMC, Ericsson and Sony - are expected to share the patents to maximise their scope to pursue patent litigation, though they did not disclose details.
Swedish telecoms gear maker Ericsson said in a statement: 'We believe the consortium is in the best position to utilise the patents in a manner that will be favourable to the industry long term.'
Google, the newest major entrant to the mobile market, with its three-year-old Android software platform, has a weak patent portfolio compared with telecoms rivals and will now be more vulnerable to lawsuits from the auction winners.
The search engine market leader had opened the bidding in April with a $900m bid, and had been expected to be a winner.
The mobile telecoms industry has seen a wave of legal battles in recent years as long-established incumbents try to protect their position against newcomers.
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion will pay $770m of the purchase consideration, and Ericsson will pay $340m. The other parties did not immediately say what their share would be.
Nortel, which filed for bankruptcy protection more than two years ago after struggling for years after the tech bubble burst in a cut-throat telecoms equipment market, has now raised a total of about $8 billion in asset sales.
The latest sale spans wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical, voice, Internet and semiconductor technologies. The most prized relate to emerging 4G standards such as long-term evolution (LTE).
