Today in New York, the bidding starts for Nortel Networks Corp.’s largest business unit. RIM has been denied entry into the bidding process because it has failed to sign an agreement that the other businesses have signed.

Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski, has explained to the press that RIM is refusing to sign what Zafirovski has called “a standard non-disclosure agreement before getting a close look at Nortel’s books.”

RIM has said it will continue to find ways to purchase the business unit and add it to RIM’s valuable intellectual property portfolio. If RIM does manage to purchase the business unit, they will have access to CDMA and LTE technology which will go a long way to improving BlackBerry devices and network infrastructure.

“That’s really what these guys are after,” said Nizar Assnie, vice-president of Vancouver-based IE Market Research Corp. The next-generation technology will provide carriers with the ability to offer cellphones with advanced, data-heavy features such as video streaming at ultra-fast speeds. Leading in LTE is a must “if you’re going to be a serious network infrastructure player in the wireless space in ten years,” he said.

There is clearly something more to the “standard non-disclosure agreement” that is causing RIM to refuse to sign. If one had to guess, the agreement probably contains some element that RIM legal, Balsillie and Lazardis, deem to be detrimental to the profitability of the purchase. Either that, or perhaps they don’t see the purchase as being a necessary step for the company, and they’re saying “take our offer or leave it, we’re not signing anything.”

Via

© Kyle for BlackBerry Cool, 2009