Microsoft offer $7.5m for 666,624 IPV4 addresses

Microsoft have offered to pay $7.5 million for 666,624 IPv4 addresses from bankrupt Canadian telecom equipment maker Nortel. This move indicates that IPv4 addresses are increasing in value as they become more scarce.

Nortel have filed a motion seeking approvals for the sale from the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. If the deal is approved, Microsoft would assume control of the IPv4 addresses, currently owned by Nortel, for around $11.25 each.

470,000 of the addresses could be used by Microsoft immediately with the remaining released to the company at the end of the bankruptcy proceedings, according to court documents linked with the sale.

This deal comes after the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that it had handed out its last block of IPv4 addresses and that any supplies remaining with regional registries would soon run out.

Analysts have said that a black market will develop soon for IPV4 addresses as the supply gets less and less and organisations are faced with the costs and risks involved with a migration to the IPV6 protocol.

KitGuru says: ICANN and regional registrars have said that the remaining IPV4 addresses will go to entities who can demonstrate an immediate need for them.

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