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Apple Paid Nokia $2 Billion To Escape Fight Over Old Patents (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple's latest patent spat with Nokia resulted in a $2 billion up-front payment from the iPhone maker, a colossal sum that seems to indicate Apple was eager to avoid a protracted and ugly dispute that could rival the one it had with Samsung. The new details of the settlement, which was first announced back in May without the disclosure of a financial amount or the new licensing terms, were spotted in Nokia's second quarter earnings release. "We got a substantial upfront cash payment of $2 billion from Apple, strengthening further our cash position. As said earlier, our plans is to provide more details on the intended use of cash in conjunction with our Q3 earnings," reads the official transcript of Nokia's quarterly earnings call with investors yesterday. Neither Nokia nor Apple have disclosed the terms of the new licensing deal, including whether it involves recurring payments or how many years it will be in place.

35 comments

  1. Two billion; or, as Tim Cook calls it... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    Pocket change.

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    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Two billion; or, as Tim Cook calls it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL , always one apple worshipping jackass making this comment. It was pathetic on the first few 500 million payouts and its just asinine now. That 2 Billion sure wont come out of apples pocket, it will be coming out of yours. Increased prices for all iGarbage.

    2. Re:Two billion; or, as Tim Cook calls it... by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 2

      It's a *fact* that Apple's sitting on a huge pile of money. Acknowledging this *fact* does not entail a value judgement, any more than acknowledging the *fact* that Hitler very nearly conquered Europe does not imply admiration for him in any size, shape, or form.

      Thanks for this opportunity to Godwin the thread.

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      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    3. Re:Two billion; or, as Tim Cook calls it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's better than that, it's unrepatriated/untaxed pocket change.

    4. Re:Two billion; or, as Tim Cook calls it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can you call it slave sweat money? In rare cases, even blood.

    5. Re:Two billion; or, as Tim Cook calls it... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2

      Don't be silly. They'll pay this out of money sitting in the US, so that they can report a $2bn loss, which should nicely offset a big chunk of tax. It's only money coming in that you don't want to put on your books in the US, money going out always comes from the jurisdictions with the highest tax rates.

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      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    6. Re:Two billion; or, as Tim Cook calls it... by Whibla · · Score: 1

      I think this is called having your cake, and gleefully stuffing your face with it in front of the starving masses!

      Can't disagree with your analysis however...

  2. Re:Evolution is intellectual fraud by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 4, Funny

    I was having lunch with God (in Tokyo). We were having bacon cheeseburgers, and he snorted milkshake out of his nose when I showed him this post.

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    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  3. Pay someone. by msauve · · Score: 2

    "...our plans is to... " reads the official transcript...

    With $2,000,000,000, they should be able to pay someone who can write in English.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    1. Re:Pay someone. by aliquis · · Score: 1

      With $2,000,000,000, they should be able to pay someone who can write in English.

      With 2 billion dollars they could likely get me to try to learn finish even though I don't know grammar at any language at all and it seem like such a pain (then again to be fair they have had to learn Swedish so ..)

    2. Re:Pay someone. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      or to take out the anal bastards who complain about it

    3. Re:Pay someone. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nokia is in Finland.

    4. Re:Pay someone. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But which nokia are we talking about?

    5. Re: Pay someone. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ...where Swedish is an official language and a mandatory subject in school.

    6. Re:Pay someone. by aliquis · · Score: 2

      Nokia is in Finland.

      I know. And I'm in Sweden.

      The point was that Finnish people native tongue isn't English, it's Finnish.
      But as Sweden and Finland has been the same country for 700 years time Sweden has played a major role in the developing of their society and even though we're split they still have mandatory Swedish over there. So all Finns learn Swedish.

      So, add it all together and the idea of my post was that for $2 billion I was willing to learn Finnish to understand them, and to mention that they have already learned my language so.. it seem kinda fair. Right? Though I would assume I would have a very hard time to learn it.

    7. Re:Pay someone. by aliquis · · Score: 1

      Nokia is in Finland.

      Should had said development. I still haven't slept and it's 11:16 AM. Maybe that's not exclusively why but .. (some AlzheimerÂs? Type as I think, ..)

    8. Re: Pay someone. by nonicknameavailable · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That most finns don't care about

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      Mendacem Memorem Esse Oportet
    9. Re: Pay someone. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Redmond now?

  4. Re:Android users pay me by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 1

    Just out of curiosity, why have your balls been damned? (I am sure your are correct in your assessment, I just want to help others.)

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    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  5. Re:Evolution is intellectual fraud by fabriciom · · Score: 1

    You are lost in life.

  6. Re: Evolution is intellectual fraud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    God made evil. God is evil.

  7. Re:Evolution is intellectual fraud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bwahaha, dumbfuck believes in imaginary sky friends. Got any like real evidence other than the delusional rantings of middle eastern goat herders.

  8. Re:Evolution is intellectual fraud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ah yes, but Creimer 0:0 says just as clearly "I know you are but what am I?"

  9. good, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    now bring back communicator with android or ios.

    1. Re: good, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope. Executive bonuses a for job well done! Innovation, R&D? Why waste money?

  10. Re:Evolution is intellectual fraud by thereitis · · Score: 1

    "Do you really believe that all the 326,000,000,000,000,000,000 (326 quintillion) estimated gallons of water upon the earth came from outerspace?"

    Yes I do believe it because *everything* is from outer space. What the Sun is made of, the Earth and Moon, the countless galaxies. The the large number you quoted only accounts for 0.022 percent of the total weight (mass is a better term) of the Earth. The Sun weighs something like 1.989 × 10^30 kg. It contains 99.86% of our solar system's total mass. That all came from space, too. So the large, mind boggling number you quoted is really tiny in the grand scheme of things. And we're talking over millions and billions of years so again, not that hard to believe when you think about it.

    Really, not harder to believe that an all-powerful god took 7 days to create everything. I mean, why wasn't it just a snap of the proverbial fingers? Who made God? Who made the one who made God? Why did God destroy his first creation - did this perfect being make a mistake? Too many loose ends for me.

    Science isn't always right, but if you look at some of the predictions they make it does an impressive job. Computers and the Internet are built based on our understanding of electricity, signal loss, material science, mathematics, and countless other things built up over the years by a lot of people.

    Scientists don't have all the answers on how life formed, but what they do know does a pretty good job of explaining the commonalities between creatures and their DNA and other traits, how the separation of a continent of millennia separated a species into two geographic locations which eventually diverged into different creatures with a common lineage, for example. When they find flaws in their theories, they update them. Think of how science has progressed in the past 100 years. At one time the atom was thought to be the smallest thing. Now science knows there are smaller things inside the atom.

    On the comment about "evolution is not science", consider this page which says:

    One of the most useful properties of scientific theories is that they can be used to make predictions about natural events or phenomena that have not yet been observed. For example, the theory of gravitation predicted the behavior of objects on the moon and other planets long before the activities of spacecraft and astronauts confirmed them. The evolutionary biologists who discovered Tiktaalik predicted that they would find fossils intermediate between fish and limbed terrestrial animals in sediments that were about 375 million years old. Their discovery confirmed the prediction made on the basis of evolutionary theory. In turn, confirmation of a prediction increases confidence in that theory.

    I'll just finish by saying that science isn't always perfect, it bothers me how sometimes things are presented as "fact" before they should be (which could be the individual scientist's or news outlet's fault), how it can be politicized, etc. I don't instantly believe all new theories - I'm not a fool. But still, science is the best framework we have to build upon and increase our understanding of the vast universe we live in. I'm sure much of what we think we know today will be replaced by updated knowledge. That's just the nature of things. Maybe some all-powerful being did set things in motion, who knows, but wouldn't it follow that the universe conforms to an amazing set of rules which makes planet formation, evolution, and other wonders possible? Given the impossibly grand scale of the universe we may never know for sure.

    Do you really believe that all the colorful, flavorful, appealing, and amazing fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, spices and meats all

  11. Again? by lobiusmoop · · Score: 1

    I though Nokia and Apple settled their patent problems in 2011

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    "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
    1. Re:Again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      apple probably copied more patents after that.

  12. Billion? by tquasar · · Score: 1

    Two billion doesn't go that far today.

  13. Mr. Timmy Money Pockets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Although real money, with $300 Billion siting in Chinese Communist Party Banks in Beijing, Shanghai and Hon Kong, and $200 Billion siting in Mafia Controlled Banks in Ireland, Netherlands, Italy and Germany, Timmy wont live long enough to spend it and being a Queer and hater of Heterosexuals he can not "seed" it away to a "family" heir. Maybe Apple Ink will announce on Timmy's death a "Power 'Ball' Contest" and just give it away to someone at random with Siri's help.

    Jajajajajajajajajaja

    kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

  14. That's because Apple hasn't been paying its owners by Solandri · · Score: 1

    Steve Jobs hated paying dividends (profit which is supposed to go to stockholders). Apple stopped paying dividends when Jobs was re-hired in 1995, and started paying them again shortly after his death in 2012. The $200+ billion in cash Apple has in the bank almost exactly equals how much it should have paid out in dividends during Jobs' reign. So I suspect what happened is the board complied with Jobs' wish not to pay dividends to stockholders, but only on the condition that they bank it so they could decide how to use it later (including possibly paying it out to future stockholders).

    So basically it's pocket change because they didn't pay their owners for close to 20 years. I'd have a lot of money in the bank too if I didn't have to make payments on my home and car loan for 20 years. (Though to be fair, Google doesn't pay dividends either.)

  15. Re:That's because Apple hasn't been paying its own by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

    Steve Jobs hated paying dividends (profit which is supposed to go to stockholders). Apple stopped paying dividends when Jobs was re-hired in 1995, and started paying them again shortly after his death in 2012. The $200+ billion in cash Apple has in the bank almost exactly equals how much it should have paid out in dividends during Jobs' reign. So I suspect what happened is the board complied with Jobs' wish not to pay dividends to stockholders, but only on the condition that they bank it so they could decide how to use it later (including possibly paying it out to future stockholders).

    So basically it's pocket change because they didn't pay their owners for close to 20 years. I'd have a lot of money in the bank too if I didn't have to make payments on my home and car loan for 20 years. (Though to be fair, Google doesn't pay dividends either.)

    There's nothing wrong with not paying dividends. There is no law saying a company must pay dividends to shareholders anywhere.

    Paying a dividend means you reduce the amount of working capital you have. For some companies, they don't need that much cash on hand. For others, it's necessary for cashflow.

    Anyhow, most of Apple's investors are in the US, while most of Apple's money is outside the US. To pay a dividend would require importing that money in, and losing 35% of it off the top, so shareholders either have to contend with a company losing 35% to Uncle Sam just to pay a dividend, or holding the money offshore and letting it grow.

    Giving dividends is usually a sign of a company out of ideas - rather than investing the profits in future growth opportunities, they decide to just return it to shareholders because they have nothing better to do with it.

    And really, Nokia's money is coming from those billions stashed outside the US. It's $2B less dollars that could be taxed ($700M would've gone to Uncle Sam) should Apple bring it in.