Rockstar Consortium Inc., originally named Rockstar Bidco,[1] is a consortium formed to negotiate licensing for patents acquired from the bankrupt multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer Nortel.[2][3] Members of the consortium are Apple Inc., BlackBerry, Ericsson, Microsoft, and Sony.[4] Rockstar is a patent holding non-practicing entity (NPE) and submitted the winning US$4.5 billion bid for the Nortel patents at a week-long auction held in New York in June 2011.[5]