Eric Savitz
Jul. 1 2011 - 11:37
InterDigital shares have spiked Friday morning, apparently getting a lift from the strong results in the Nortel patent portfolio auction.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, a consortium that includes Apple, Microsoft, Research In Motion, Sony, EMC and Ericsson paid $4.5 billion for the Nortel patents, outbidding Google and others. The Journal notes that the price was 5x Google’s opening bid for the patents, adding that the strong demand “shows the rising stakes of intellectual property in the increasingly competitive and litigious smartphone business.” The portfolio includes 6,000 patents and patent applications in telecom, Internet search and social networking.
InterDigital, as it happens, is a technology company that specializes in patent licensing: the company notes on its Web site that it has 8,800 U.S. and foreign issued patents and almost 10,000 pending applications, almost all related to wireless communications. So you can see what’s going on here: Nortel’s big auction has triggered a revaluing of IDCC’s patents.
IDCC today is up $6, or 14.7%, to $46.75.
http://blogs.forbes.com/ericsavitz/2011/07/01/interdigital-rallies-following-strong-nortel-patent-auction/
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