I'm not sure I'm prepared to talk about Nortel here.
You're quite right that Nortel had 55,000 patents, and it ended up being the largest valued asset of Nortel through the bankruptcy process. The various assets were auctioned off, and I believe it was $4.5 billion that they received for that.
It certainly does make it clear that intellectual property and patents, in particular, particularly in that sector, are very valuable.