Microsoft"s move to purchase 800 patents from AOL today for just over $1 billion has received Wall Street"s stamp of approval, as least as far as AOL is concerned. The stock price for AOL has surged up over 43 percent as of this news post. The overall stock market is down for the day and Microsoft"s stock price is down close to one percent as of this writing.
AOL has been struggling financially for a number of years and has been in the process of shutting down or selling off many of its operations, along with several mass layoffs. However, the amount of money it will receive via its deal with Microsoft could allow AOL to make some acquisitions that could finally turn things around for the company.
AOL has already announced it will use "a significant portion of the sale proceeds" to pay off its shareholders in some way. Such a gesture might help to keep its investors from jumping ship.
Meanwhile, Microsoft gains access to a number of patents, including reportedly those that AOL owned when it bought Netscape many years ago.