Tuesday, April 10, 2012

It seems that there is a big sale over the tech market lately, with different properties are being acquired by bigger companies to either expand their property or keep their competitors at bay or both. Such as the acquisition of the company/product  Instagram by the social networking giant, Facebook that was formally announced today.

Today, another big news in tech world also spread out that Microsoft is in the process of acquiring majority of AOL's recently on-auction patents numbering up to 800 plus concerning key strategic areas such as advertising, search and social media.

AOL earlier announced that it will be selling 800 patents in order to raise money, surprising investors with the size of the deal and sending AOL shares up more than 40 percent. The sale which includes technology rights from AOL's current and former businesses, ranging from Netscape, ICQ and MapQuest to CompuServe, Advertising.com and others started last fall and is considered a full-blown dynamic auction in the tech industry.

A final buyer, which is Microsoft, was finally selected last April 5, to own those patents according to Tim Armstromg, AOL CEO.

The deal acquired by Microsoft includes a non-exclusive licences grants to the patents AOL retained with   300 of these patents are still on hold by the company.

The huge sale allowed AOL to boost its share from $7.78, or 43 percent, to $26.20 in morning trading, and $7.87 to $26.29 in afternoon trade adding about $750 million to its market capitalization. Microsoft's shares however slipped 37 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $31.15 in morning trading.

This is not the first time that AOL and Microsoft had been into partnerships. It may be remembered that the two and Yahoo! company have shared common interests and formed an advertising alliance last year. This year's acquisition of Microsoft to AOL patents only shows that Microsoft is in full interest of AOL's patent portfolio.
Posted by Unknown On 6:46 AM
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