My theory is they went in thinking they were willing to spend a lot more money than a consortium. I think they underestimated. And then after realized that being the odd man out put them in a tenuous position.
It's one of those things where people weren't out to get you. But they played their hand so poorly they've made themselves the obvious target.
Curious if the Nortel deal happened in at all the same way.
Well if the consortium had plans to keep the patents closed, while Google wanted them to open them up, I can see why Google couldn't be a part of that panel.
Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no.
https://twitter.com/#!/BradSmi/status/98902130412355585
Why would Google decline to be a part of this consortium? It would have disarmed its competitors.