Friday, March 25, 2011

Microsoft pays Nortel $7.5 million for IPv4 addresses

Microsoft this week offered to pay Nortel $7.5 million for 666,624 legacy IPv4 addresses. The sale is pending approval by U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware as part of Nortel's Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

IPv4 black marketIt doesn't sound exactly like the black market for IPv4 address that industry experts have been warning us about for years. But then again, it could be the start of one. This sale is reportedly the first publicly disclosed large-scale sale of IPv4 addresses since ICANN announced they had run out of address blocks, says Kevin Murphy from Domain Incite. And if the court approves the sale on April 26, these 666K-plus addresses will selling for a decent chunk of change, too. (Those who oppose the sale, have until April 4 to file their objections). [Court documents: PDF].

Microsoft will pay $11.25 per address. That's more than the going rate for to register a .com domain name, which these days can be had for as little as $7.50.

Nortel filed for Chapter 11 on On January 14, 2009. In November, it realized its block of legacy IPv4 addresses might be worth something to its debtors and it hired Addrex, a stealthy broker of IPv4 addresses, to find a buyer. Addrex began shopping around and, in early December, asked eighty potential purchasers if they were interested. Of these, 14 expressed interest and seven actually submitted bids for all or some of the addresses, according to the court documents. Obviously, Microsoft walked with the prize for being the highest bidder.

For the rest of the story click here.

No comments:

Post a Comment