Kodak Sells Off Patents for $525M

by Christopher Freeburn | December 19, 2012 11:12 am

[1]Bankrupt Kodak (PINK:EKDKQ) has agreed to sell a portfolio of digital imaging patents to a group of companies[2].

The group, which includes patent licensees Google (NASDAQ:GOOG[3]), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL[4]), Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM[5]), Samsung, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT[6]), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB[7]) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN[8]), will pay $525 million for the portfolio of patents, Bloomberg noted.

Kodak had previously said the patents were worth about $2.6 billion. The company noted that it still owns 9,600 other patents.

The sale of the patents was a crucial step for Kodak, which hopes to emerge from bankruptcy early next year. In order to get $830 million in financing, the company had to sell the patents for at least $500 million by the end of January. It must also find buyers for two businesses.

Kodak is shedding a number of assets, including its photo kiosk, commercial scanner and consumer film businesses and will leave the ink-jet market.

By partnering with each other for the Kodak patents, the technology companies involved in the group lower the chances of subsequent patent infringement litigation[9].

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2012/12/kodak-sells-off-patents-for-525m/

---