Quality over Quantity: Examining Google’s Acquisition of Motorola Mobility

By: Trevor Blum
computer

Financial analysts this week are aflutter with opinions regarding the announced US$12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (MMI) by Google, Inc. (GOOG).  Unlike most billion dollar acquisitions, the deal is seemingly focused on one asset class: patents. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google will gain ownership of Motorola Mobility’s approximately 17,500 patents and 7,500 applications, teaching telecommunications technologies, notably relating to the popular Android mobile operating system. To comprehend this deal, many analysts are focused little beyond the ... Read More

Categories: Author: TMB, Investment Intelligence, Today in IP

New article in Intellectual Property Magazine: The Value of Efficiency and Transparency in IP Licensing: Let the Market Decide

By: Ian McClure
dsc_04331

I recently published a new article in Intellectual Property Magazine titled "The Value of Efficiency and Transparency in IP Licensing: Let the Market Decide".  The piece discusses the need for a more efficient licensing model with market enhancing solutions providing accessibility and elminating transaction costs associated with the traditional bilateral licensing model.  Read the article HERE. Read More

Categories: Burgeoning Business, Investment Intelligence

Tax and Intellectual Property: Forum Shopping for a Licensing Program

By: Ian McClure
nashflood

Tax incentives are always a large part of a corporate law practice.  Taxes can dictate the structure of a deal, help provide financing for an acquisition, or simply cause an organization to incorporate elsewhere because of better tax benefits.  When a company is beginning an IP licensing program, tax penalties, benefits, or other incentives could play an important role in forum shopping (if a company should have the luxury of being able to do so).  While many refer to those jurisdictions with ... Read More

Categories: Burgeoning Business, Investment Intelligence

IP Finance Options: Understand Your Asset and Exit Strategy

By: Ian McClure
greek

(A few words from a macro - and very general - point of perspective) Financing can come in all shapes and sizes. Generally, a start-up will (hopefully) have a great idea and leaders with a vision. However, many start-ups may be doing so without any assets - just a business plan. It may be hard to obtain financing - whether private equity or commercial loan or otherwise - with just an idea. Some start-ups, however, will be fortunate enough to have one (or ... Read More

Categories: Investment Intelligence, Monetizing IP, Portfolio Potential

High-Quality IP = Higher Gross Margins = Higher Stock Price

By: Ian McClure
stock-market-game1

For publicly traded IP-rich companies, the correlation between the strength of an IP management and protection plan and stock price is obvious. The track record of the OT 300 pitted against the S&P 500 between 2006 and November 2008 shows this clearly.  The OT 300 outperformed the S&P 500 by just over 460 basis points.  We keep talking about the absence of IP value from corporate balance sheets.  It just may be this absence, in fact, that tends to push such IP-rich companies' stocks ... Read More

Categories: Investment Intelligence, Monetizing IP

The Future of IP: Notes from the ICAP Ocean Tomo Summer 2009 Conference

By: Ian McClure
oceanicap

I apologize for the break in action. I have been on the road almost continuously since attending last week's ICAP/Ocean Tomo "IP Markets 2009" Summer Auction and Conference in Chicago.   Thanks to those who have messaged or emailed in search of the "full report" I promised before the event, I have not been derailed from my mission and will hereby "give the people what they want." We all know the results of the auction.  For the second straight auction, the numbers were disappointing.  ... Read More

Categories: Burgeoning Business, Investment Intelligence, Patent Prospects

Venture Capital, Universities, and Nanotechnology

By: Ian McClure
nano280

A great article in the New York Times today focused on university technology transfer efforts and venture funding for start-up companies in the nanotechnology field.  Besides opening some eyes to the various beneficial uses of nanotechnology, the article explains the angel and VC investors that join forces with universities in subsidizing new companies, whether that be through start-up capital or providing the machines necessary to produce these technologies.  Nanotech companies frequently own one type of asset and one type of asset only: ... Read More

Categories: Investment Intelligence

Morgan Stanley Does Large IP Securitization Deal

By: Ian McClure
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Could this be a resurgence of IP securitization?   Financial Times has reported a large IP securitization deal worth $250M executed by Morgan Stanley with Vertex Pharmaceuticals.  Investors' return will be based on milestone royalty payments received from sales of a drug that hasn't even been approved yet.   Before the recession, securitizing intangibles was becoming somewhat popular.  Many are aware of the Dunkin Donuts deal that hit headlines everywhere.  Still, these deals, along with most other deals, have dried up.  The Vertex deal shows ... Read More

Categories: Investment Intelligence, Monetizing IP, Portfolio Potential

Intellectual Asset Management Creates the IAM 250

By: Ian McClure
iam2

Intellectual Asset Management magazine has created the IAM 250, a non-exclusive list of the world's leading intellectual property strategists.  The list includes professional attorneys, accountants, consultants, and other business persons that remain at the frontier of the IP market and the practices that are becoming essential to managing corporate intangible assets.   The list is invitation-only, which requires at least three references and recommendations.  Inclusion consists of a bio in the directory and access to the members-only online discussion board, a community of dialogue ... Read More

Categories: Investment Intelligence, Today in IP

Goodwill Has Gone Bad, But IP Is (becoming) Independent

By: Ian McClure
holiday-spending

A New York Times article today (Losses in Good-Will Values Dog Bank Deals) attributes the massive write-downs occurring at banks these days to overvalued good will and the overpayment for companies during the "merger mania" of the last decade.  The following part caught my attention: Companies are taking billions of dollars in losses as they write down the value of assets known as good will - the amount they overpaid for a business compared with the sum of its parts. As the economy ... Read More

Categories: Burgeoning Business, Investment Intelligence