BlackBerry sell mobile patents

BlackBerry sold 90 patents to Huawei a year ago, now the company has announced a $600 million deal to sell yet more patents related to mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking.

The sale is to Catapult IP Innovations. Based in Delaware, Catapult was formed specifically to hold the BlackBerry patents. The money is split as $450 million in cash and a $150 million promissory note.

Also as part of the deal BlackBerry will retain a license to use the patents. The company says that customers using its services will not be affected. However, some BlackBerry employees will move to Catapult.

As an early pioneer in wireless messaging, BlackBerry was contributed major innovations and holds valuable patents. Held, anyway, at one point its portfolio was estimated to be worth $2-3 billion (or as high as $4-5 billion in the case of a bidding war). The company used some of its BBM patents to sue Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp back in 2018, proving their worth.