Qualcomm has decided to purchase a bunch of mobile patents from HP, including some that were a part of one of the biggest acquisitions failures in tech business history. The deal was announced by Qualcomm today, but as usually with these transactions the specific financial terms were not disclosed (although we suspect HP needs the money).
The group of 2,400 patents that are now under Qualcomm"s control include many that were previously created or owned by the now defunct Palm. HP bought Palm for $1.2 billion in 2010 and continued to release smartphones under the Palm name. However, the sales for those devices were poor and in 2011 HP said it would no longer ship any more Palm smartphones. The operating system for those devices, webOS, was sold to LG in February 2013.
In addition to the Palm portfolio, Qualcomm also bought the rights today to patents that HP had purchased from Compaq, specifically its IPAQ handheld, along with Bitfone which "include fundamental mobile operating system techniques." The company added, "The acquisition further enhances the strength and diversity of Qualcomm Incorporated’s industry-leading mobile patent portfolio and will enable the company to offer even more value to current and future licensees."
Source: Qualcomm | Image via Palm