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BlackBerry�s patents are a gold mine - if they ditch handsets (RTGAM)
SEAN SILCOFF
OTTAWA � A huge patent sale involving BlackBerry Ltd. raises several questions about the value of its intellectual property stash. The answers might not be what investors would expect.
[BOLD]Three years ago, a consortium including BlackBerry Ltd., Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. bought a portfolio of 6,000 Nortel Networks patents for $4.5-billion (U.S.). On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported the group, Rockstar Consortium Inc., sold 4,000 of the patents to holding company RPX Corp. for $900-million.
Does that mean the value of patents has collapsed since 2011? Rockstar paid an average of $750,000 per patent in 2011; it is now getting $225,000. Indeed, does that mean the value of BlackBerry�s entire patent portfolio is worth far less than the $1-billion to $3-billion analysts estimate?
The answers aren�t as dire as they may appear on the surface. Desmond Lau, an analyst with Veritas Investment Research, says that even if BlackBerry�s 44,000 patents were worth less than half the value of the Rockstar deal � say $100,000 a patent � �You�d still have $4.4-billion of value,� well above most estimates.[/BOLD]
�That indicates the market is not assigning a very high value� to BlackBerry�s patent portfolio, Mr. Lau said.