San Francisco: Blackberry, one of the most popular phone brands of the era before smartphones took over, has announced that it is selling patents covering mobile devices, messaging and other tech to Catapult IP Innovations for $600 million.
Catapult IP Innovations is a special purpose vehicle formed to acquire the BlackBerry patent assets.
Blackberry says this sale “will not impact customers’ use of any of BlackBerry’s products, solutions or services”.
Patents that are essential to BlackBerry’s current core business operations are excluded from the transaction.
BlackBerry will receive a license back to the patents being sold, which relate primarily to mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking.
At closing, BlackBerry will receive $450 million in cash and a promissory note in the principal amount of $150 million.
The promissory note will be secured by a second lien on the assets of the purchaser and will be subordinated to the rights of the senior lending syndicate.
The promissory note will be payable in five equal annual installments of $30 million in cash starting on the third anniversary of the closing date, provided that the senior loan is not in default.
To recall, the company officially killed its services earlier in January, disabling access to mobile data, phone calls, text messaging and 9-1-1 functionality.
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