What might have prompted Facebook, which filed to go public in February, to make an unsolicited bid for the AOL patent portfolio? AOL's 29 patents that could be applied to social networking systems?
Co-incidentally on March 12, Yahoo! filed lawsuit against Facebook in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging "Facebook's entire social network model, which allows users to create profiles for and connect with, among other things, persons and businesses, is based on Yahoo's patented social networking technology." New York Times reported that Yahoo! has threatened Facebook with “10 to 20″ of its patents, purportedly related to “Facebook’s ads, privacy controls, news feeds and messaging service.” Facebook countersued Yahoo! on April 3 in a the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Less than a week later, after it reportedly lost out on the AOL patent bid, and on the same day Microsoft unveiled the AOL deal, Facebook, said it is buying Instagram photo-sharing for $1 billion.
If Microsoft intends to sell most of the non-core patents it acquired from AOL, and Facebook is still interested, the second time might be the charm for Facebook's bid at AOL's patents.
More on Yahoo! News here: Facebook May Have Bid on AOL Patents
Co-incidentally on March 12, Yahoo! filed lawsuit against Facebook in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging "Facebook's entire social network model, which allows users to create profiles for and connect with, among other things, persons and businesses, is based on Yahoo's patented social networking technology." New York Times reported that Yahoo! has threatened Facebook with “10 to 20″ of its patents, purportedly related to “Facebook’s ads, privacy controls, news feeds and messaging service.” Facebook countersued Yahoo! on April 3 in a the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Less than a week later, after it reportedly lost out on the AOL patent bid, and on the same day Microsoft unveiled the AOL deal, Facebook, said it is buying Instagram photo-sharing for $1 billion.
If Microsoft intends to sell most of the non-core patents it acquired from AOL, and Facebook is still interested, the second time might be the charm for Facebook's bid at AOL's patents.
More on Yahoo! News here: Facebook May Have Bid on AOL Patents
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