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Acacia Q2 2012 Earnings Report Reveals 5% Of Deals Contribute To 85% Of Revenue
A detailed analysis of Acacia’s second quarter earnings is available at A Tale Of Two Quarters – Acacia Research Illustrates Patent Play Volatility. While the patent licensing firm posted $50 M in revenue, and nearly $150 M in the first six months of 2012, details of Acacia’s 10-Q show that once you exclude their 4 … Continue reading
Patent Plays In Focus At Seeking Alpha: InterDigital, Nokia, Augme And Others
Some readers may already have noticed a recent series of articles posted to the investor-focused website Seeking Alpha focusing on companies that either currently, formerly, or prospectively will, derive most of their revenue from patent monetization. (In fact, the first series of articles includes at least one of each.) These so-called “patent plays” form an … Continue reading
(Patent) Party Like A Rockstar
Operating under the name Rockstar Bidco, a consortium of tech companies including significant financing from Microsoft, Apple and Research In Motion, outbid then patent-deficient Google for the LTE-essential rich patent trove auctioned away by the now bankrupt Nortel’s creditors. While the creditors made off with $4.5 billion, Rockstar staffed up with former Nortel patent attorneys … Continue reading
Reform This! Acacia CEO Credits Patent Reform As A “Major Trend” While Announcing Its Biggest Quarter Ever
Driven largely by January’s blockbuster purchase of ADAPTIX, and the immediate recognition of an estimated $70 MM in licensing revenue from Microsoft and Samsung, Acacia announced Q1 2012 as its best quarter in history, with a total of $99 MM in revenue, a whopping 62% increase over the same period last year. In total, Acacia … Continue reading
Patent Pricing ‘A La Carte’ Drives AOL Valuation
Over at the IAM Blog, as well as Gametime IP, MDB Captial received some undeserved credit for correctly calling AOL’s patent portfolio value at $1 B, while another firm–kept busy by actually driving the deal–went unnoticed. Unfortunately, limelight-seekers–with no dog in the hunt–commonly take to the airwaves, while the real analysts actually driving the deal … Continue reading
Q: Why Was MDB Capital Right, And M-CAM So Very, Very Wrong On AOL Patent Value?
A: Because computers are not capable of truly understanding patents. Period. Joff Wild over at the IAM Blog explained M-CAM’s $290 M prediction as the “absolute ceiling price” of the AOL patent sale quite succinctly (and politely) by noting that the computer analytics firm “seems to have got it horribly wrong.” Meanwhile, MDB Capital’s Christopher Marlett prediction … Continue reading
Well, That Didn’t Take Long
So, less than 24 hours after I wrote that “sometimes the day is not complete without a column … about how our patent system is malfunctioning and not performing its goal of ‘promoting innovation,’” we have this insipid entry from the Wall Street Journal and Andy Kessler. The piece is a fairly predictable diatribe, but … Continue reading
Glimpse Of America’s Future From Across The Pond – Are UK ‘SME’ Patents Worth More As Heating Fuel?
An interesting story today from The Telegraph introduces inventor and small business owner Michael Wilcox. After spending £150,000 to develop his printing technology, Wilcox burned his patent in protest, expressing his frustration over failed attempts to negotiate license agreements with larger companies in the industry. Wilcox told the paper that, because companies no longer feared … Continue reading
Another Smart Move From Microsoft’s Patent Licensing Group
This past September, Canadian patent licensing company MOSAID acquired 400 patent families from Nokia through a purchase of Core Wireless S.a.r.l. The purchase netted MOSAID 2000 total patents, of which more than 1200 are reportedly “standards essential” for 2G, 3G and 4G wireless standards. MOSAID claims that “it made no upfront payments to acquire the … Continue reading
Microsoft/Samsung License Acacia Patents For Estimated $65 MM
Publicly traded Acacia Research (NASDAQ: ACTG) invests shareholder money into patent assets, playing a key role in the technology creation life-cycle: making sure the original creators of the technology get paid for their work. Recently, Acacia invested a sizable portion of its cash ($160 MM) into a company called ADAPTIX, garnering a small but potent … Continue reading
