The deadline for the bidding of Canadian wireless startup Mobilicity has been extended to December 16. Citing a document posted on the website of the firm's court-appointed monitor Ernst & Young Inc, Reuters reported that bidders are given until noon next Monday to submit their offers for the struggling company. Mobilicity, which was formerly called Data & Audio Visual Enterprises, sought court protection from creditors earlier in 2013. According to Ernst & Young, they extended the deadline after receiving requests from several bidders.

Mobilicity's lower-cost unlimited talk and text plans are utilized by less than 200,000 clients primarily in Canada's largest cities. The struggling startup previously agreed to be acquired by one of the leading wireless providers in Canada, Telus Corp. However, the sale was twice blocked by the federal government because the sale would lead to wireless spectrum ownership that would be unduly concentrated.

Mobilicity's largest creditor, private equity company Catalyst Capital Group Inc, is not interested in owning the struggling startup, the report said. Rather, a Catalyst spokesman said it was interested in having Mobility merge with Wind Mobile and would think about investing resources behind it. Wind Mobile is the biggest of the new players in the mobile market in Canada and is the brand name of Globalive Wireless Management Corp.

Last week, Globalive CEO Anthony Lacavera said his firm had already joined the court process and is evaluating the value of Mobilicity. Lacavera controls Globalive with the backing of Vimpelcom Inc. However, he did not disclose the value of his possible bid for Mobilicity. The report said it is not seen to likely offer as much as Telus which made a CAD 380 million or USD 357 million offer in its first bid for Mobilicity.

According to the report, Ottawa would be more likely to approve a bid from Globalive because of its eagerness to see smaller players give the market's Big Three providers some competition.