“Apple Inc. and Google Inc., aiming to bolster their patent portfolios, are among companies weighing possible bids for InterDigital Inc., a mobile-phone technology designer, according to a person with knowledge of the situation,” Jeffrey McCracken, Brian Womack and Adam Satariano report for Bloomberg.
“InterDigital, which has about 1,300 patents related to mobile-phone technologies used to transfer information, hired bankers as it considers a sale, the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based company said in a statement yesterday,” McCracken, Womack and Satariano report. “InterDigital joins companies including Nortel Networks Corp. and Eastman Kodak Co. in selling patent portfolios that will help would-be owners defend themselves against allegations of infringement. Google lost in a bid for Nortel’s $4.5 billion portfolio to a group that included Apple and Microsoft Corp.”
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McCracken, Womack and Satariano report, “InterDigital’s patents in cellular technology are ‘deeper and stronger’ than Nortel’s, InterDigital Chief Executive Officer William Merritt said in April. The company has a market value of about $3.1 billion.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
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