I don't think acquiring the patent portfolio had much to do with patents Google actually needed. The idea was just to hold onto enough patents that you could threaten other people when they come for you.
This is what Sun used to do.
This is what Sun used to do.
So while Google did not get these patents that as it stands seem to be unrelated to current Google activities, they did help force the others to pay a premium for them. It looks like they may have helped Nortel gain enough that the company might in fact be able to start anew. $1.5bln in seed money is pretty decent, as long as that does not get liquidated to investors. Interesting none the less.