Slashdot Mirror
Google and Yahoo Settle Overture Lawsuit
An anonymous reader writes "Google and Yahoo have apparently settled their ongoing lawsuit involving patented on-line ad technology owned by Yahoo subsidiary Overture. (U.S. Patent 6,269,361). According to reports, Google will issue 2.7 million common shares to Yahoo in return for a license. Read more about the infringement suit here. This move is expected to lower any potential downsides to Google's upcoming IPO."
Is it a common practice nowadays to use shares (IPO even) for payment?
My understanding is that if a share is not sold, you don't have a cent yet in your pocket.
The article estimated that would net Yahoo as much as an additional $149 million at the high end of Google's expected IPO price range. However, could (and would) Yahoo sell all shares at the high end price though?
Uselessful technology (Air-Charged
Things get worse and worse everyday for Google, and to think they had months when the hype was absolutely unreal, yet they failed to capitalize. To quote Richard Russell, the guru market timer: "Google may know the web, but they know nothing about markets".
IP law is indicitive of the economy as a whole. When the economy is doing well, people/companies have more money for filing patents/trademark/etc. When the economy is slower, people save more money (less filings), and also are more likely to go after people (attempting to extract money from their techonology.)
If you invented something completely new and revolutionary, such as Bell's telephone, or the Wright brothers' plane, would you want to earn money from it for some time- or let anyone and everyone produce it and make the money (instead of you). Patents provide an incentive to discover and invent new things, and ensure your time, money and efforts don't go to waste.
The problem we have now is that patent offices worldwide are backed up, and often patent examiners are not qualified. For example, up until about 5 years ago, the USPTO would not accept computer science degrees as a qualification for patent agents/examiners- this was left to people with electrical engineering degrees.
At our firm, we have noticed that in the past 3-6 months, the USPTO is less friendly in approving patents- even for things that we believe are new & patentable. The European Patent Office has been rejecting things as well, for technologies that we believe are new & unique.
Seems to me that Google wants to curb the enthusiasm of unwanted potential investors -- and it's a smart move: if *everyone* is interested, the whole thing can explode at the start and only go downhill from there.
So instead there are warnings in the prospectus, the unregistered shares buyback offer, the Yahoo dispute, the dislike of Wall Street and the day-trading audience... Keeps the too nervous and too speculation-prone types out of the club. Warren Buffet does the same thing with his $100,000 per share price.
Which is the whole point of the IPO -- raise money for the company to work, not to make some people rich in a short time. I won't be buying any Google shares though.
For the record, patents protect inventions (such as the Flowbee, and not ideas such as gravity (Newton), metaphysics (Descartes). I imagine that since Pascal was producing adding machines, he likely would've liked protection for his invention. The Wright brothers did not get a patent for flying, or the Bernoulli Effect, they got a patent for a machine that performed these functions. As for Mozart & Beethoven, this is not patent law- it's copyright. And yes, those two were quite wealthy back in their time.
There are people in the third world right now who are laughing at your patent laws. They're selling copies of Windows and MS Office in the streets for pennies on the dollar. Heck, they're laughing at them right here in the US. Music download has become an addictive pasttime for some people.
This is copyright law again, as the underlying issue is protecting an original work of authorship. I agree with you on this part. The copyright holders in the US are doing a terrible job of adapting to new technologies. As for patents in the Third World, like pharaceuticals, that's messed up as well. Drugs are needed in certain areas, and should be available- but companies still need to make money.
Your opinion is about as valuable as an accountant's opinion on network security implmentation.
Issues shares cost Google money, which is why Google had to absorb a quarterly charge of $250-$300 million. This will make Google lose money for the quarter - the quarter in which they planned to go public. For your information, in Q3 of 2003, Google only earned $20.4 million.
Yahoo, however, will increase its stake in Google to 4%. It has already announced that it will likely sell a large percentage; this will make Yahoo's Q3 look great compared to Google's. The sell-off is likely to decrease Google's stock price further, if indeed Google does go public when it had planned. Yahoo will also forever be able to say Google's ad technology is based on theirs.
Lastly, search engine preference change. For a while, Yahoo! was on top. Altavista (now owned by Yahoo!, who also owns Imktomi) was once on top. Google is now the king. Who is to say in a few years, Toema, meta search engines, or even Yahoo! will not be on top?
If you think this is an "excellent busines sstaretgy" or Google, think again!
No way, that's $10,000,000 for a license. What makes you think there stock is worth anything NEAR what what it will initially sell for? I said it before and I'll say it again. In a few months, this stock will drop to its fair value of four bucks. I just a f'n search engine, come on people!
The government which is strong enough to protect you from everything is strong enough to take everything from you.
"If you invented something completely new and revolutionary, such as Bell's telephone..."
What a great example from an IP lawyer! The telephone was invented by Antonio Meucci. He died seven years into a lawsuit with Bell. There's even been a Congress resolution admitting he invented it.
Oh the irony.
"Patents provide an incentive to discover and invent new things, and ensure your time, money and efforts don't go to waste."
Try telling that to Meucci.
cLive ;-)
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
did i miss something ?
No you didn't. Patents are all about greed and selfishness. It is a way for an entity to gain a monopoly on a market and keep everybody else out while it is making a killing. Patents are not conducive to good human relations. It is just another facet of the dog-eat-dog nature of our economic and social system. It's a form of our collective madness. It can only lead to chaos and destruction. It's rather sad because it does not have tobe that way.