BlackBerry to sell $600 million worth of patents to US-based company: Here’s why
BlackBerry has decided to sell a number of its legacy patents primarily related to mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking. The patents will be acquired by a special purpose vehicle, Catapult IP Innovations. This transaction will not impact any customers’ use of its products or services.
BlackBerry on Monday announced that it will sell $600 million worth of its patents to Delaware based Catapult IP Innovations, which has been formed specifically to hold the BlackBerry patents. The deal has been structured as $450 million in cash and a $150 million promissory note.
As a part of the deal, BlackBerry will retain a license to use the patents, to ensure that customers using its services will not be affected. Under the deal, some BlackBerry employees will move to Catapult.
The sale is yet to be completed as first the federal government of Canada will go over the details to ensure that the deal is likely to have a net benefit to the Canadian economy, while at the same time not posing a risk to national security. The deal has been in the works since 2020 and is expected to take up to seven months to close.
To recall, early last year, BlackBerry sold 90 security-related patents to Huawei. At the time, the company stated that the transaction was about patents in the United States and is a very small transaction, not being part of any ongoing arrangements both sides have with the Canadian government.
Due to BlackBerry being an early pioneer in wireless messaging it hosts a number of patents, with its portfolio estimate at a point being valued at around $2-3 billion. The company has also used some of its BlackBerry Messenger patents to sue Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp back in 2018, ending up winning the lawsuit.
As of now, it is not clear if this deal will affect Onward Mobility, which is trying to relaunch the BlackBerry brand with new 5G phones.
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