Qualcomm has announced the acquisition of Palm, IPAQ and Bitfone patent portfolio from HP.
The Palm patents are, of course, those HP got when it acquired Palm Inc. back in April 2010 for $1.2 billion.
The iPAQ patents come from HP’s acquisition of Compaq Computer Corporation in 2002 and the Bitfone patents from HP’s acquisition of the Bitfone mobile device software in December 2006.
According to the official announcement from Qualcomm, which is not very detailed about the deal:
The portfolio, comprising approximately 1,400 granted patents and pending patent applications from the US and approximately 1,000 granted patents and pending patent applications from other countries, covers technologies that include fundamental mobile operating system techniques. 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. The purchase price was not publicly disclosed.
If you recall, LG acquired webOS from HP in early 2013 (see LG acquires webOS from HP), so after this deal closes, it appears that HP would have managed to recoup most of the $1.2 billion it spent on Palm, Inc. The interesting thing to watch now is what Qualcomm will do with all this mobile device patents in its kitty. I suspect that the company will try to do more with them than just enable it to “offer even more value to current and future licensees.”
