“Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s second-largest maker of mobile phones, is examining InterDigital Inc.’s patent portfolio after being approached to make a bid, according to two people familiar with the matter,” Jeffrey McCracken reports for Bloomberg.
“Samsung is looking at the patents along with Apple Inc., Google Inc. and other potential bidders, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private,” McCracken reports. “InterDigital, which holds patents related to mobile technologies used to transfer information, said last month that it hired bankers as it considers a sale.”
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McCracken reports, “The King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based company may fetch more than $5 billion, according to analysts at Algorithm Capital and Dougherty & Co. Other companies including Eastman Kodak Co. are also selling patent portfolios.”
“Apple and Google are weighing possible bids, a person familiar with the matter said last month,” McCracken reports. “Google, whose Android operating systems runs smartphones that compete against the iPhone, lost in a bid for Nortel’s $4.5 billion portfolio to a group that included Apple and Microsoft Corp. InterDigital’s patents in cellular technology are ‘deeper and stronger’ than Nortel’s, InterDigital Chief Executive Officer William Merritt said in April.”
MacDailyNews Take: No, really, the guy selling something claims it’s better than someone else’s? Amazing.
Read more in the full article here.
[Attribution: Cult of Mac. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jax44” for the heads up.]
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