Our M&A lawyers are among the most experienced and effective in the world. We represent many of the world's largest publicly traded and privately held companies, as well as leading private equity firms on their most important mergers, acquisitions and takeover transactions.
Ericsson Part of Winning 'Rockstar Consortium' at Nortel Patent Auction
As widely reported in the press, our client Ericsson was part of the winning bid for bankrupt Nortel Networks' portfolio of over 6,000 patents for a price of $4.5 billion. The winning bidder, Rockstar Bidco, LP, is a consortium that was initially comprised of Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion, Sony and EMC Corporation. During the four-day bankruptcy auction, the consortium joined forces with Apple, until then an individual bidder. After 19 rounds of bidding, starting from a $900 million initial purchase price in the Google staking horse agreement, the Apple/Rockstar consortium outbid the joint effort of Google and Intel (which teamed up with Google during the course of the auction).
The patents -- which include patents and patent applications in telecommunications, Internet search and social networking, and cover mobile, long-term evolution and data networking as well as optical, Internet, service provider, semiconductors and other patent portfolios -- attracted interest from all of the world's top telecommunications and technology companies, as each looks to establish, cement, or defend its position in the highly competitive and highly litigious industries covered by the patent portfolio. Although not the largest financial contributor to the consortium, Ericsson was the originator and strategic leader of the group throughout, and brokered the critical alliance with Apple mid-auction.
The Paul, Weiss team working on the transaction includes M&A partner Marilyn Sobel and counsel Ji Lu, with intellectual property matters handled by partner Charles H. Googe Jr. The bankruptcy team was led by partner Stephen J. Shimshak and counsel Diane Meyers. Tax advice was provided by partner Peter J. Rothenberg. Antitrust and HSR advice was provided by partner Joseph J. Simons and counsel Didier Malaquin. Employee benefits advice was provided by counsel Reuven Falik.