Computing company Intel has agreed to buy around 1,700 patents and patent applications from wireless technology business InterDigital. The deal, worth $375 million (£238 million), involves patents related to 3G, LTE and 802.11 technologies.
Scott McQuilkin, Senior Executive Vice President for Strategy and Finance at InterDigital, said “The acquisition of this portfolio of InterDigital's technologies by a global technology leader like Intel affirms the efforts of our research and development team which actively shares our innovations with the worldwide standards bodies, defining technologies that are central to the world's major wireless systems and devices. This transaction, which involves a small portion of our overall patent portfolio, marks an important milestone of InterDigital's stated strategy of expanding the monetization of its large and growing intellectual property portfolio. By executing on our business plan, which has been broadened to include patent sales, licensing partnerships and other possibilities, we see tremendous potential to expand revenue and build shareholder value."
The deal is expected to be completed in the autumn.