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Facebook Buys $550 Million in Microsoft Patents

The social media platform snatched up intellectual property from Microsoft following Yahoo’s impending patent infringement lawsuit. In the wake of Yahoo’s pending patent lawsuit against Facebook, the world’s No. 1 social networking site is responding by beefing up its intellectual properties portfolio.  

By Lindsey Peacock /

Microsoft patents | BCBusiness
Microsoft and Facebook jointly announced Facebook would acquire 650 patents from Microsoft in a $550-million deal.

The social media platform snatched up intellectual property from Microsoft following Yahoo’s impending patent infringement lawsuit.

In the wake of Yahoo’s pending patent lawsuit against Facebook, the world’s No. 1 social networking site is responding by beefing up its intellectual properties portfolio.
 
Facebook and Microsoft jointly announced a $550-million deal Monday in which Facebook picks up hundreds of patents Microsoft purchased recently from AOL.
 
Originally, both companies, along with eBay and Amazon, scrambled to acquire a total of 925 patents from AOL’s portfolio. But Microsoft emerged as the winner only to sell off more than 600 of the properties to a competing bidder.
 
The news is striking since it seems Facebook is spending its cash fast and furiously less than a month before its anticipated initial public offering. The patent deal comes just a couple of weeks behind Facebook’s $1-billion Instagram takeover and another deal for 750 patents from IBM. And it doesn’t seem the site will slow down its spending spree any time soon.