Just two weeks after forking over more than $1 billion to AOL for hundreds of patents and patent applications, Microsoft resold 650 of them to Facebook on Monday. Each party in this latest transaction will retain licenses to the intellectual property the other will hold when the deal is completed. The purchase, Facebook said, is another step in its process of building an IP portfolio to protect its interests. “Facebook’s using a lot of Microsoft technology, and Microsoft had a fairly hefty investment in them early on, so Microsoft’s protecting that investment,” said analyst Rob Enderle.
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Microsoft Flips AOL IP to Patent-Hungry Facebook
Posted by: Richard Adhikari April 23, 2012 03:20 PMJust two weeks after forking over more than $1 billion to AOL for hundreds of patents and patent applications, Microsoft resold 650 of them to Facebook on Monday. Each party in this latest transaction will retain licenses to the intellectual property the other will hold when the deal is completed. The purchase, Facebook said, is another step in its process of building an IP portfolio to protect its interests. “Facebook’s using a lot of Microsoft technology, and Microsoft had a fairly hefty investment in them early on, so Microsoft’s protecting that investment,” said analyst Rob Enderle.