InterDigital sells $375 million worth of patents to Intel, stock rises 30%, who made out?

It’s been a big month for Interdigital.

In a landmark deal, the King of Prussia-based wireless technology developers sold 1,700 patents to Intel for $375 million in cash earlier this month, half a dozen news outlets reported. The company saw its stock rise 30 percent after the announcement of the sale — even if some commentators questioned whether less than a quarter million dollars a patent was a high enough a mark.

The sold patents, relating to wireless technologies like 3G and LTE, only make up about 8 percent of Interdigital’s portolio, and the company says it expects to continue developing of about 1,000 patents a year at its labs in King of Prussia, Montreal, San Diego and Melville, N.Y.

Last year, Interdigital considered selling its entire portfolio but didn’t receive the bids it expected, Philly Tech News reports.

On the same day the sale was announced, Interdigital doubled its stock repurchase program to $200 million.

Over at stock market analysis site SeekingAlpha, one contributor notes that $220,000 per patent seems particularly low and wonders who really came out on top in the deal.

What’s the deal with patent sales in tech community? The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Bob Fernandez explains:

Technology companies are purchasing patent portfolios as both offensive and defensive business strategies, while companies with patents are selling the intellectual property to monetize it.

Google acquired the Motorola smartphone business for $12.5 billion, at least partly to obtain its 17,000 patents. A consortium of Apple and Microsoft has purchased 6,000 wireless patents from Nortel. On June 11, the bankrupt Eastman Kodak Co. filed a court motion seeking to sell 1,100 patents in its imaging systems and services portfolio, considered among its most valuable assets.

Companies purchase patents for the technology and for the legal ammunition against patent-infringement lawsuits, experts say. The more patents a company has in an area of technology, the more insulated it is against those claims. [more]

The Interdigital sale is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2012.

[Full Disclosure: InterDigital was a 2011 Philly Tech Week sponsor.]