Keith (M) Posted December 9, 2012 Share #1 Posted December 9, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) The technology industry may be moving to a more cooperative mode on patents, with Apple, Google and Microsoft putting their patent disputes to one side for the sale of former photography giant Kodak's patent stack. Kodak went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January and got a cash infusion based largely on the value that could be realized on the auction of its patent portfolio. Kodak has a huge amount of digital imaging patents and estimates the stack's value at over $2bn at current market rates. According to Bloomberg, two consortia had been planning to bid on the patents. Apple, as it did in the Nortel patent buy, sided with Microsoft and ex-Microsoftie Nathan Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures with an opening bid of around $500m.. / / Now, according to two sources, Apple and Google's groups have hammered out their differences and the two consortia have joined together to share costs and put in a combined bid of around $800m. "Apple and Google learned a lesson from the Nortel's auction," said Richard Ehrlickman, former vice president of Intellectual Property at IBM. "They have decided to come together in this process to reduce the cost of purchasing the Kodak patents, while meeting their business needs." Kodak's patent stack is worth less than the company estimates because it is already widely licensed-out, Ehrlickman said, and the original $2bn estimate may have been overstated. This is bad news for Kodak, which is hoping to use the proceeds of the sale to relaunch itself as a printing and packaging manufacturer.. See here for the rest of the article in 'The Register'. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted December 9, 2012 Posted December 9, 2012 Hi Keith (M), Take a look here Apple, Google, Microsoft join forces to buy Kodak patents. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
adan Posted December 9, 2012 Share #2 Posted December 9, 2012 Might want to add "according to unnamed sources" to your headline. Hardly a done deal. However, the rumored $800M price does surpass the $550M requirement to get the Blackrock financing announced previously. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adan Posted December 20, 2012 Share #3 Posted December 20, 2012 NOW a done deal, it appears: Kodak sells digital imaging patents for $525M - Yahoo! News Kinda rugged for Kodak when you figure they got - for 40 years of digital research investment - about the equivalent of 2 years gross income for l'il old Leica. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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