Oh, Canada: Despite entreaties from Research in Motion Ltd. to keep Nortel’s assets within the country, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said there will be no blocking of the $1.13 billion sale of Nortel Networks’ wireless assets to Ericsson.
The Canadian BlackBerry-maker is rumored to want access to Nortel’s lucrative LTE patents, which Nortel will lease to Ericsson when the deal goes through. And so it has been asking the government to keep Canada Canadian, essentially, by blocking the deal and keeping those assets in-country. It also earlier claimed it was a matter of national security.
But the problem is that this is an idea that flies in the face of the free trade openness that Harper has expressed support for. "There's a process, a process of review of purchases by foreign companies," Harper told reporters. "And we will respect this process.”
Despite the indication that there will be no government intervention, RIM seemed heartened: "The Prime Minister has acted in a way that could facilitate an outcome that serves the interests of all parties and of Canada," RIM said in a statement.
