Microsoft, which recently bought patents from AOL for one billion US dollars (£620 million), is selling most of them to Facebook for 550 million dollars (£340 million).
The two companies said Facebook is buying about 650 of the 925 AOL patents and patent applications bought by Microsoft.
Facebook will also get a licence to use the rest of the AOL patents. Similarly, Microsoft will get a licence to use the patents Facebook is buying.
This part of the arrangement amounts to an agreement between Facebook and Microsoft not to sue each other over any of the AOL patents.
Microsoft says the deal enables it to recoup half the cost of the AOL deal while reaching its goals for the purchase.
Source : Orange News