MS Supports FB’s Success; Promotes It’s Own Facebook has been shedding market value like a wet collie its winter coat. With Facebook’s share price down to just $72.7B as of May 22 from $104B three days after its IPO, Microsoft does not appear to be too concerned. Its $1.2B stake has decreased just a few hundred [...]
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Bold Patent Moves Bolster Facebook, MSFT
April 23, 2012
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Cash Rich, IP-Savvy MSFT Embraces Role of Patent Dealmaker After acquiring 800 patents and scores of applications and licenses from AOL for $1.1B just two weeks ago, Microsoft has said that it has flipped the bulk of the portfolio, 650 patents, to Facebook for $550M, securing the IP assets and licensing MSFT needs while recouping [...]
Read more Could AOL Patent Sale Have Netted More Than $1B?
April 10, 2012
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Investor Pressure May Have Triggered a “Too-Quick” Sale It was widely reported yesterday that AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) on Monday agreed to sell more than 800 patents and related products to Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) for $1.056 billion. It was also written that the struggling online services provider was under pressure from activist investor Starboard Value, holder of [...]
Read more Wall Street Discovers Patents
March 12, 2012
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Experts Gather in SF for IP-Finance Forum Patents, abstract and esoteric, remain largely a mystery to those on Wall Street. At the same time, the financial community’s perspective on IP value, grounded in the capital markets, is not something that patent holders and professionals readily understand. To bridge the information gap the Licensing Executives Society [...]
Read more Alactel-RPX Patent Licensing Venture is Short on Details
February 16, 2012
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Deal is Said to Worth as Much as 1B Euros When Alcatel-Lucent announced recently that Rational Patent Exchange (RPX), the defensive patent aggregator, would be presenting its 29,000 patents for license to RPX’s some 50 blue chip clients, it received notable attention. What was not detailed is how the revenues will be generated and sustained. [...]
Read more C-Level Execs, Investors Play a Bigger Role in Patent Calls
December 14, 2011
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“Build, License, Buy or Steal?” For many businesses abundant R&D and patent filings provide a good foundation for innovation and sales freedom. But that may be changing. Information technology companies are learning what Big Pharma realized some years ago: a strictly internal pipeline rarely is sufficient to fill all of most business’ IP needs. This is [...]
Read more U.S.-Funded Alternative Energy Patents Fall into Foreign Hands
November 21, 2011
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Solar Subterfuge By Daniel Scotto, Whitehall Financial Advisors LLC The value of energy assets has taken a giant leap backward. What used to be simply bricks and mortar has transformed into billions of dollars’ worth of Research and Development that can now be acquired for nominal cost. U.S. Companies invested vast sums in developing intellectual [...]
Read more Patents – The Rights We Love to Hate
November 8, 2011
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A Misunderstood Symbol of Control, Patents are the Rodney Dangerfield of Assets: “They Can’t Get No Respect” – Recent record prices for patent sales and shares of selected technology businesses (e.g. Nortel, Motorola, InterDigital) have turned up the volume on angry anti-patent rhetoric. Patent owners of all shapes and sizes, including some operating companies, continue [...]
Read more Innovative IP Models Generate Cash, Provide Alternatives
August 22, 2011
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New Patent Businesses are Diverse and Well-Capitalized A wider range of intelligent businesses are achieving higher returns on patents by extracting direct profits or providing defensive leverage. The Patent Monetization Landscape below is a graphic illustration of these businesses developed by Brody Berman Associates in conjunction with the IP Investment Group at Coller Captial, a London-based private equity firm and one the of the leading independent patent [...]
Read more $12.5b Motorola Sale Nets $1b for “Activist” IP Investor Carl Icahn
August 16, 2011
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Recognition of Patent Value Results in Big Shareholder Win – In developments discussed recently in IP CloseUp, activist IP investor Carl Icahn has made a truly historic impact on the wireless and intellectual property industries with the sale of Motorola Mobility to Google for $12.5 billion. A couple of weeks ago in an SEC filing [...]
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About Bruce Berman
As a consultant and editor focused on intellectual property and finance, I am close to the latest developments and most influential people.
Since 1988 I have been working with patent holders, managers and investors to frame and properly convey their assets, performance and disputes.
My four books deal with IP rights as business assets. THE INTANGIBLE INVESTOR, a column I write for IAM, looks at ways IP can generate ROI. For a complete bio visit www.brodyberman.com.
