Apple and Google reportedly have teamed up to offer Eastman Kodak more than $500 million for its imaging patents, which are being sold as part of Kodak's bankruptcy proceedings.
According to a report Friday from Bloomberg, Apple and Google are bidding on 1,100 Kodak patents related to the capture, manipulation and sharing of digital images. In its court filings, Kodak valued the patents at between $2.21 billion and $2.57 billion.
Apple and Google's partnership would be an unusual one for the two companies, which are major rivals in the global smartphone market. Apple's iOS and Google's Android OS together account for a massive 86.3 percent share of the global smartphone market, with Android holding the majority of that share at 72.4 percent.
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Unusual partnerships, however, are fairly common in patent sales, as they minimize the risk of potential patent infringement claims at a later date, Richard Ehrlickman, former vice president of Intellectual Property at IBM and president of IP Offerings, a patent brokerage and consulting company in Boca Raton, Fla., told Bloomberg. These alliances also allow each bidding company to save on patent costs."They have decided to come together in this process to reduce the cost of purchasing the Kodak patents, while meeting their business needs," Ehrlickman said.
A Google spokesperson declined to comment, saying the company doesn't comment on rumor. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Apple and Google originally were going to seek separate bids on Kodak's patents, Bloomberg said, with Apple backed by other companies including Microsoft and Intellectual Ventures Management and Google backed by patent-aggregation company RPX Corp and some Asian suppliers of Android-based handsets. Separately, each group was offering less than the $500 million Google and Apple are now reportedly offering together.
Kodak, a former industry giant in the camera and digital imaging space, is selling its patent portfolio to help offset its financial struggles. The company said it was seeking Chapter 11 protection in January and last month became eligible to receive $830 million in exit financing, pending the sale of its digital imaging patents for a minimum of $500 million, Bloomberg reported.
PUBLISHED DEC. 10, 2012
