Intel Buys 1700 InterDigital Patents For $375 Million

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Intel Buys 1700 InterDigital Patents For $375 Million

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) buys about 1,700 InterDigital, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDCC) patents for wireless technology worth $375 million. This increases InterDigital’s shares up to twenty-seven percent.

This deal should benefit both companies as Intel has been wanting to branch out into the mobile market while InterDigital has been waiting for the opportunity to capitalize on an increase in wireless patents.

The deal was made on Monday.  Earlier, investors expressed their concern that the company might not finalize their patent sale because back in January, InterDigital claimed that they couldn’t find a buyer for their company and that they would continue to look for buyers. Nearly one year ago, InterDigital talked about possibly selling the company or patents.

Ron Shuttleworth (analyst for M Partners) claimed, ” This should reduce some of the executional overhang that was on the stock. The market was worried they wouldn’t meet this milestone. This should reduce some of the executional overhang that was on the stock. The market was worried they wouldn’t meet this milestone.”

Another analyst from Berenstein, Stacy Ragson, thinks that price point per patent is much lower than previously announced patent deals. Ragson compared it to Nortel’s patent sale last year which was worth $4.5 billion with $750,000 per patent and Google’s $12.5  billion buy-up of $735,000  per patent.

InterDigital also announced their plans to double their share buyback authorization from $200 million to $100 million. They also said they would stick to their revenue target of $71 million for the second quarter and that includes the sales from other patents for $9 million. The deal should officially close during the third quarter of this year.

This patent deal sounds like a smart move for both companies as it should help them reach one step further to their goals. What Intel plans to do with these patents is not yet known but I think it’s safe to predict that they’ll probably team up with another big technology company to create a new generation of smartphone and other mobile products.

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