Facebook The Buyer
So today's post is about Facebook once again and its shopping spree. In fact sometimes it looks more like they're giving money away, so we might as well go and ask for a couple of million dollars and maybe Mark Zuckerberg would just give it to us :)
Anyway, today I was reading the news, and I found out about Facebook buying AOL patents for a half billion dollars which were bought by a million by Microsoft.
So, this looks more like an exchange of patents with an intermediary than an actual direct business transaction, but what is catching my attention is the fact that Facebook is making heavy investments on building its patent portfolio after it was sued by Yahoo of violating patent rights.
However, Facebook is not still out on the stock market, and even if that would be true. The estimated value of Facebook for one billion dollars is just an estimation. It might be more as well as less, and the fact that stock market is so full of speculation, once again, I think that's an overpriced product for something that as famous as it is today can become infamous tomorrow and go bankrupt. At the same time, businesses just work that way and it might look like a justified risk.
Probably, it sounds as good of an idea as
Facebook buying Instagram for a billion dollars or Microsoft buying the same patents it is now selling for half price to Facebook for another billion.
In any case, Facebook is building a strong portfolio for defending itself of multiple patent demands which are flying by all around the world, but at the same time, it's just participating on a model of business which might end up costing more than less. I think that it is the wrong approach to get involved in patent wars for getting a product up and running, and
Twitter has the best approach on this issue by not using the patents as a way of taking down other business like yahoo does, but instead defending itself in case of litigation. I think everybody should follow that example, and I think the fact that Facebook is buying a patent portfolio is just the preview of it looking for a way demanding other companies and end up hurting the final consumer of the product.
Even tough my wildest dream is seeing Facebook going down as fast as it went up, I think its decision just keep inflating this patent issues which just affect the final consumer, as well as, the inventor or creative people which cannot write any more code because it will be sued soon or later by one of the big guys
Thanks for reading The Metal Grunge today
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