Rather Than Pay Off Yahoo, Facebook Built A Patent Fortress

Tue, 04/24/2012 - 02:53 EDT - Seeking Alpha

By Josh Constine
Facebook (FB) had a choice to make: With just 56 patents to its name at the start of 2012 it could pay its way out of Yahoo's (YHOO) infringement lawsuit with gobs of money and remain vulnerable to other patent attacks, or make a long-term investment into an intellectual property portfolio it could protect itself with for years to come. Facebook has wisely taken the second path, upping its patent stockpile to over 1400 with today's $550 million cash purchase and licensing of 650 AOL patents from Microsoft (MSFT) today. These new patents cover email, instant messaging , web browsing, search, ads, mobile, and ecommerce according to a source with direct knowledge of the purchase.Surely, Facebook might have gotten better deals on this cache from Microsoft and the package of 750 patents it bought from IBM had it not been so desperate, but better late thanComplete Story »

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Rather Than Pay Off Yahoo, Facebook Built A Patent Fortress

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