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Given the projected market cap of Facebook, relative to Yahoo, the settlement could be worth 1/2 of Yahoo's market cap or more. Given Yahoo's revenues and they
by relaunched 15y ago
Given the projected market cap of Facebook, relative to Yahoo, the settlement could be worth 1/2 of Yahoo's market cap or more. Given Yahoo's revenues and they way patent infringement is punitively calculated, the infringement on Facebook's newly accounted patents would have to be worth a huge portion of Yahoo's revenue to matter. Otherwise, Yahoo could just close down the infringing services, settle on the back stuff, and continue suing Facebook.
If IBM's patents were core to how Yahoo made money, IBM would have already sued and / or licensed them to Yahoo. The fact that they didn't, leads me to believe that a lot of attorneys, on Facebook's behalf, are going to be billing tons of hours looking to find a square needle, to fit into a round hole, at the bottom of a HUGE haystack.
- nknight 15y agoIBM isn't particularly aggressive with its patent portfolio, especially in areas not relevant to its core businesses, nor are they likely to want the distraction and cost of suing a company a fraction their size in search of a small slice of its revenue.
- chii 15y agoyou underestimate the way patents tend to get worded, and the "broad" applicability of some software patents.