TORONTO — An intense bidding war for Nortel Networks’ prized wireless division stretched into the late afternoon as international tech industry titans submitted their best offers for the business.

The high-profile sale process, which started Friday morning in the offices of the insolvent technology giant’s lawyers, has generated plenty of controversy.

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion clashed with Nortel over the bidding process, and called on Ottawa to intervene before the bidding began.

None of that appeared to make any difference on Friday when the wireless assets were placed on the block without any major delays.

Representatives from both Nortel and some of the bidders confirmed that a buyer hadn’t been decided on yet in the afternoon and that the meetings were still underway.

Potential buyers are making their offers for the older CDMA and newer LTE wireless businesses included in the package that also houses valuable patent rights.

Swedish telecom giant Ericsson submitted the highest official bid before the process began, offering $730 million US, while lower offers had placed by New York-based MatlinPatterson and Nokia Siemens.

Ericsson president and chief executive Carl-Henric Svanberg told analysts in a quarterly earnings conference call that he believes Nortel’s wireless division could give his company a stronghold in the future.

“This about an ongoing CDMA business in North America,” he said.

He said several carriers, including Bell Canada’s wireless division, still use CDMA technology and will need another platform for future technological growth, which the Nortel division can provide.

The assets “could certainly improve our strategic position in the U.S., especially since many CDMA operators will migrate first of all into LTE,” Svanberg said.

Absent from the negotiations is RIM, which informally offered $1.1 billion, but was shut out of the process after it refused to agree to certain terms.

After days of vocal protest, RIM issued a statement on Thursday evening saying that it was in discussions with unnamed Nortel stakeholders, which would be a roundabout way of acquiring some assets.

Some reports have suggested the stakeholder could be MatlinPatterson, though both companies have declined to say whether they’ve been in negotiations.

Federal ministers say they encouraged Nortel and RIM to meet and discuss the bid, in hopes that they could reach an agreement, but neither side made any major progress.

On Friday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty vouched for RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie’s quest to acquire Nortel assets.

“I think he’s a great Canadian and I think he’s entirely right to ask for the government to be concerned about the issue,” Flaherty said in Toronto, where he was attending a public event.

“What we want to see is a level playing field, we don’t want to see anyone excluded from the process with respect to the sale of the assets of Nortel.”

However, Flaherty said it’s up to Industry Minister Tony Clement to make any ultimate decisions.

Clement said this week that he wouldn’t intervene in Nortel’s auction, but that he hoped Nortel would meet with RIM executives to discuss a compromise.

Other Nortel assets are heading for a similar auction process, most notably its enterprise business which was sold to Avaya Inc. for $475 million earlier this month.

The Enterprise unit supplies landline phone systems and other communications equipment to businesses and large organizations around the world.

Interested buyers will be able to submit their offers in the coming weeks, and an auction date could be selected as early as next week.

The Canadian Press