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Intel Slices Off Some InterDigital Patents for $375M

Suspicions are Intel may have creamed off the best of the 20,000 patents in IDCC’s portfolio
By Maureen O'Gara
Article Rating:
June 19, 2012 11:00 AM EDT
Reads:
 2,475

Intel is buying $375 million worth of wireless patents from InterDigital after it looked for months there like InterDigital couldn't give the things away.

Behind ARM in mobile, Intel is picking up 1,700 patents and patent applications related to 3G, LTE and the chi-chi 802.11ac Wi-Fi, at least some of them standards-essential.

Suspicions are Intel may have creamed off the best of the 20,000 patents in IDCC's portfolio and cheapened the company's revenue potential.

Desperate to monetize its IP, InterDigital was touted as a likely beneficiary of the halo effect of the giant $4.5 billion Nortel patent deal last year, but investors were fooled. Smarting from the Nortel loss, Google went and bought Motorola Mobility and its patents for $12.5 billion instead leaving IDCC's inflated stock price to tank.

InterDigital's stock now back up a modest ~26.5% to $28.93. The deal is set to close next quarter.

Bernstein Research figures the price Intel's paying, roughly $220,000 a patent, is "materially lower" than what the Nortel and MMI patents fetched. The Nortel patents went for about $750,000 each.

IDCC confessed in January that it couldn't find anybody to buy the whole company. Now it's proposing to double its stock buy-back plans to $200 million.

Published June 19, 2012 – Reads 2,475
Copyright © 2012 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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More Stories By Maureen O'Gara

Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025. Twitter: @MaureenOGara

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