Canada's industry minister Tony Clement has encouraged
Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RIM) to bid in an auction for
the mobile network unit of bankrupt Nortel Networks.
Nortel
filed for bankruptcy protection in January in the US and Canada
to give the company the opportunity to deal with costs, debts and
restructuring.
Fellow Canadian company RIM has said it is willing to pay $1.1bn
for the Nortel business, but has so far not entered a formal bid
for the auction, which takes place today.
Some analysts believe it may too late for RIM to enter a bid
after it objected to Nortel's conditions. Bids officially closed
yesterday afternoon.
But Clement said RIM is not necessarily out of the running and
may even team up with one of the registered bidders, according to
Reuters.
At least three offers have come from foreign companies, but
Clement said he would welcome a Canadian bid or Canadian
participation in a bid.
Nokia Siemens Networks, MatlinPatterson and Ericsson have put in
bids ranging from $650m to $730m for Nortel's technologies, far
below RIM's valuation.