BlackBerry's mobile phone swan song brings it $600 million in patent loot
Every government employee's favorite handset brand - Blackberry - is ready to say goodbye to its cell phone era by exiting it with a $600 million loot bag in the form of patent sales.
That's right, the company just recently shut down the last of its Android apps, after putting the kibosh on support for BlackBerry OS and others like the once-ubiquitous BlackBerry Messenger, and is now selling all of its mobile-related patents for more than half a billion to ensure a graceful exit.
Granted, there are rumors that BlackBerry may still be working on a 5G handset, but these may have been simply wishful thinking, as the company wouldn't be selling its patents to focus on its current cybersecurity and automotive platform endeavors otherwise.
А "special-purpose vehicle" which may or may not become a patent troll afterwards, has been formed for the transaction. The so-called Catapult IP Innovations entity will acquire BlackBerry's mobile patents with a $450 million loan from a lending syndicate where Third Eye Capital from Toronto is taking the lead.
The other $150 million will be delivered to BlackBerry in the form of a promissory note, and the whole process can stretch until the fall. Thankfully, BlackBerry will keep a license on its patents in order to continue winding down or supporting whatever it has left from the mobile era:
Patents that are essential to BlackBerry’s current core business operations are excluded from the transaction. BlackBerry will receive a license back to the patents being sold, which relate primarily to mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking. This transaction will not impact customers’ use of any of BlackBerry’s products, solutions or services.
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