Nortel Bonds Trade Higher On Patent Boost
July 01 2011 - 11:57AM
Dow Jones News
Nortel Networks Corp.'s (NRTLQ) bonds are trading higher Friday
as a consortium including Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Microsoft Corp.
(MSFT) paid $4.5 billion to buy some patents belonging to
Nortel.
Nortel's 10.125% bonds due July 15, 2013, are quoted 9.25 cents
higher at 105 cents on the dollar on 73 trades, according to
MarketAxess, an online trading platform.
Its 10.75% bonds due July 15, 2016, are quoted 9 cents higher at
105.5 cents on the dollar on 162 trades and the 5.344% notes due
July 15, 2011, are quoted 6 cents higher at 98.75 cents on the
dollar on 51 trades.
Nortel, which filed for bankruptcy in 2009, has been selling off
assets in bankruptcy court since then. Google Inc. (GOOG) had
originally made what is known as a stalking-horse bid on the
patents of $900 million in April and the auction was delayed by a
week after Nortel said it had seen a "significant level of
interest" in the portfolio.
Nortel's portfolio includes around 6,000 patents and patent
applications in telecommunications, Internet search and social
networking, and covers mobile, long-term evolution and data
networking as well as optical, Internet, service provider,
semiconductors and other patent portfolios, the company said in a
statement.
--By Anusha Shrivastava, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2227;
anusha.shrivastava@dowjones.com
--Sven Grunberg and Dominic Chopping contributed to this
report.