We’ve written on many occasions recently about the increasing value of patents as companies (eg see Patents wars and Google buys Motorola Mobile for its patents) get more litigious. Today AOL got a much needed bolster as Microsoft pays over $1b for 800 of its patents. Tim Armstrong says that after the deal some $15 of cash will relate to each share. The cash will be returned to shareholder when the deal completes around the end of 2012. No wonder AOL shares have surged by 42% so far today to $26.
I’ve already declared that I became an AOL shareholder after my lunch date with Arianna Huffington last March. It didn’t look like a great move (see AOL slumps) and I’d come to understand why she’d taken cash rather than shares in the Huffington Post acquisition. But that was before today…