The Nortel restructuring continues to be what many observers consider the most interesting Canadian restructuring in recent memory. Most recently, it was an international battle for certain of the once Canadian icon's valued assets.

A consortium uniting Apple, Inc. and Microsoft with other top players in the software, electronics and wireless handset industries outplayed Google in a bankruptcy court auction for Nortel’s patent portfolio, posting a winning offer of $4.5 billion for the trove of 6,000 patents that cover fourth-generation wireless, data networking, Internet, and semiconductor technologies.