Apple and Google agree to dismiss all Lawsuits

[frahse]

Market Watch and the WSJ

By Daisuke Wakabayashi and Rolfe Winkler
Apple Inc. and Google Inc. agreed to dismiss all lawsuits between them, bringing to a close a patent dispute between the iPhone maker and the Web giant’s Motorola unit.


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[frahse]

---- added - I should have mentioned in the above that Lenovo is buying the Motorola unit from Google for 2.9 Billion dollars.

[Kumabjorn]

Kind of amazing that a company can lose $10 BN in value during such a short time span. Yes, I understand that the patents hold some value but 85% or so of the company's total value?

[Graham]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Kind of amazing that a company can lose $10 BN in value during such a short time span. Yes, I understand that the patents hold some value but 85% or so of the company's total value?

Google is only out of pocket by $3.2 billion even before taking stock of the value of the patents:

When Google bought Motorola, the hardware maker had about $3 billion in cash on hand and nearly $1 billion in tax credits. So that brings the original deal’s price down to about $8.5 billion.

Then, Google sold Motorola’s set-top box business to Arris for nearly $2.4 billion. That lowers the price down to roughly $6.1 billion.

Now, Google is selling Motorola Mobility — primarily the handset business, along with a few patents — for $2.9 billion. So we’re at about $3.2 billion.

http://daringfireball.net/linked/201...oogle-motorola

It's difficult to assess the value of the patents, but they do bring the loss down even further.

Graham