AOL has sold its Microsoft patent package for $ 1 billion

AOL is going through hard times now, and the company’s problems have begun not today or yesterday. AOL is trying to find an acceptable way out of a difficult situation, and one of the possible solutions to the problem is to sell a package of patents. Back in March, news was published on Habré that the package of 800 AOL patents valued at about a billion dollars. In the same news, it was stated that there were several potential buyers. As a result, these patents were sold, and Microsoft was the buyer.



So far, the deal is only at the initial stage, and it may take several months to complete it. Interestingly, in addition to the purchased 800 patents, Microsoft received the right to use another 300 patents, this right is indicated in the additional agreement. It is clear that patents bought for a billion dollars cannot be insignificant. But the most important, as far as can be judged, are the remaining 300 patents, which describe various technologies related to advertising on the Web, search services and other key things.

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An interesting point is that Microsoft, in an agreement with AOL, also received technologies that are patented by the Netscape developers. Now AOL has only the Netscape brand itself, but the technologies and assets related to the brand are transferred to Microsoft.



Microsoft, having acquired all of these patents, was simultaneously protected from the attacks of some competitors, and a good opportunity to attack itself. After all, patents acquired by a corporation are indeed key - many of the patented technologies are worth the whole Internet, so to speak. There are patents that relate to email, IM-messengers, search services, etc.



Via washingtonpost