Microsoft recently said that he is ready to sell some of part of a patent portfolio it acquired from AOL to social networking site Facebook for about $550 million.
These are some of the big deals that are captured by facebook and it is the second big acquisition Facebook has revealed this month as it moves forward with plans to go public. Earlier Facebook also agreed to buy the popular photo sharing application maker Instagram for $1 billion. Apart from it Facebook expects to raise as much as $10 billion in its initial public offering.
Not only this earlier this month, AOL agreed to sell about 925 patents for $1.06 billion and also agreed to license its remaining 300 patents. Microsoft said Facebook will take ownership of about 650 AOL patents and patent applications and also gain a license for the 275 remaining patents and applications that Microsoft will continue to hold.
Ted Ullyot (general counsel for Facebook) said “Today’s agreement with Microsoft represents an important acquisition for Facebook”, he also added “This is another significant step in our ongoing process of building an intellectual property portfolio to protect Facebook’s interests over the long term.”
Brad Smith, executive vice president and general counsel at Microsoft, said the deal “enables us to recoup over half of our costs while achieving our goals from the AOL auction.”
Microsoft’s shares were down 33 cents, at $32.09 amid a broad market downturn. The stock is up 24% so far this year.
