The top dogs among the tech industries are trying terribly hard to outperform each other. This is the exact reason why some are selling their companies and others are buying them.
Copyright holders often discuss something of a proceedings cease-fire that agree to cross-license each other’s modernization rather than face a barrage of violation cases in court. This is the reason why Google, which has a scant patent portfolio to fight court case from rivals, agreed to pay out $12.5 billion in cash yesterday to obtain Motorola Mobility.
However, there is a flaw in the correspondence. In actual cold wars, the latest weapons can be developed as the government will spend money for the development of such a weapon. That is not how the battle determined in the mobile device world.
Chief executive of MDB Capital Group, Christopher A. Marlett, says there’s a regulated supply of pertinent large, exclusive rights portfolios accessible.
It is an arms competition, for sure. It is just that the free arms limited. Also, with recent deals–such as the transaction of 6,000 copyrights and copyright applications from Nortel for $4.5 billion to an association that includes Apple and Microsoft, as well as the future Google-Motorola acquisition–the arms becomes even difficult to be found.
Of the top 20 portable device patent holders in the United States, Marlett assumes that four companies, after Motorola, might think of selling their entire potable device patent portfolios. They are Research In Motion, Alcatel-Lucent, Yahoo, and Sony.
In the latest investigation note, Evercore Partners analyst Alkesh Shah claimed that the boards are likely to feel the rising pressure to monetize their intellectual possessions. There are times when the stock prices do not reflect patent value.
Indeed, that is what occurred at Motorola. The billionaire open-minded investor Carl Icahn pressed the company to get rid of its patent portfolio.
InterDigital, a wireless technology business in King of Prussia, Penn., put itself on the block on the previous month as intellectual property prices rise. Its shares scale up to more than 60 percent, as companies, which include Google, speak to the company about acquisition. After Google make known its Motorola plans, InterDigital shares tanked, loosing around 14 percent of their value and closing at $64.96, after investors worried that Google might lose interest in the company if something goes wrong.
However, MDB’s Marlett never doubted that the patent arms race is going to continue, as well as the next vast selection to go could be Kodak. The picture company said last month they are thinking of selling 1,100 patents that are key technology for mobile devices. Patents, which included image previewing technology. Kodak alleges both Apple and Research In Motion for infringing.