Posted on Tuesday, April 24 2012 @ 15:20 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Just two weeks ago Microsoft obtained $1 billion worth of patents from AOL, and now news emerges that Facebook is paying Microsoft over $550 million for a selection of the AOL patents:
It seems that everyone has come out smelling like a rose as a result of the recent patent shuffle. The original deal saw AOL shares jump 37 percent while still retaining perpetual licensing to the intellectual property sold.
For Microsoft, they were able to redeem more than half of what they paid AOL for the patents. Microsoft executive vice president and general counsel Brad Smith told All Things D that Redmond never felt it was necessary or important to own all of the patents.
As the latest recipient in the patent exchange, Facebook is able to further pad their portfolio ahead of a planned public offering scheduled to take place next month. It further strengthens a relationship between Facebook and Microsoft that started when the latter purchased 1.6 percent of Facebook for $240 million in 2007.
Source: TechSpot
