There was an intriguing tidbit in the upbeat results that BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd.
reported Wednesday: In the fiscal quarter just ended (which saw revenue surge 102% above the same period a year ago), the company also spent $310 million acquiring intangible assets. What did they buy? No response yet to an e-mail inquiry earlier Thursday. But it's interesting to note just because RIM is so intellectual-property driven, as witness to its $612.5 million patent dispute
settlement with NTP two years ago, or for that matter a dispute with Motorola Inc. that
flared up in February.
A scan of press releases on the RIM site didn't identify any activity of this kind in the last quarter. It did turn up a
release from October 2007, saying RIM had settled yet another IP dispute, this one with
Eatoni Ergonomics Inc. (which specializes in predictive text technology for ambiguous keyboards) by licensing a patent and making an equity investment in Eatoni. In this part of the tech world, apparently, it's always something.
Also worth noting: In September, Chris Greendale of Kodiak Venture Partners told our sister blog
Tech Confidential that he thought RIM should be making software acquisitions. -
Kenneth Klee
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