Microsoft Buys Hundreds of Thousands of IPv4 Addresses

Posted 03/28/2011 at 9:42am | by Paul Lilly

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As the number of remaining iPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) addresses continues to dwindle, Microsoft went on a buying spree of sorts. The world's largest software maker agreed to pay a tidy sum of $7.5 million to Canadian communication equipment manufacturer Nortel in exchange for 666,624 iPv4 addresses at $11.25 a pop.

News of the deal comes just six weeks after ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) announced that the last block of iPv4 addresses has been allocated and what's left at the regional authorities level will soon be gone, dotspress.com reports.

Expect to see more of this stockpiling behavior, which some see as signs that the mad grab for what's left of these addresses will drive up the price. You may even see the rise of a black market for IPv4 addresses.

Of those that Microsoft purchased, 470,000 will be available right away, with the remaining addresses to be transferred after Nortel's bankruptcy proceedings are finished.

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