Facebook Buys AOL Patents From Microsoft
Microsoft announced Monday that it will be selling its newly purchased AOL patents to Facebook for $550 million.
Microsoft originally purchased 925 patents and patent applications from AOL for $1 billion, and Facebook will be purchasing about 650 of those 925.
"Today's agreements with Facebook enables us to recoup over half of our costs while achieving our goals from the AOL auction," said Brad Smith, executive vice president and general counsel of Microsoft. "As we said earlier this month, we had submitted the winning AOL bid in order to obtain a durable license to the full AOL portfolio and ownership of certain patents that complement our existing portfolio."
Conversely, Microsoft will have a license to use the patents that Facebook purchased. This arrangement essentially will serve as an agreement between the two companies to not sue each other over the patents.
"This is anotehr significant step in our ongoing process of building an intellectual property portfolio to protect Facebook's interests over the long term," said Facebook General Counsel Ted Ullyot.
Microsoft said this deal allows the company to compensate for half of the cost of the AOL patent deal while also allowing the company to achieve its purchase goals.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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