What Happened to the 2012 Tech Bubble That Never Was

Turns out Facebook's fizzled IPO was a pretty good microcosm for 2012 in startup land: it was all one big fizzle. The final numbers for last year in venture-capital IPOs and acquisitions are in, and while there was no dot-com-era type of explosion, the much hyped new tech bubble appears to have just... petered out. There remains hope, as always, for the unpredictable year ahead. Here are some key stats from the Thompson Reuters and National Venture Capital Association survey released Wednesday:
RELATED: Mark Zuckerberg Promises Not to Bail on Facebook for the Next Year
Venture-backed companies made less money for their investors than they did a year ago.
There is less investment money out there, overall, with investors doling out $6.9 billion last quarter, compared to $10.1 billion the year before and $8.4 billion a quarter before that — a trend that The Wall Street Journal noted back in September, which we speculated may have had something to do with Facebook's IPO fail.
Acquisitions of "venture-backed companies" were also down, totaling $3.52 billion last quarter down from $4.99 the year before, as were acquisitions in general, which totaled $21.5 billion, down 11 percent from $24.09 billion in 2011.
The number of companies that opted to IPO fell to eight from 11 the year before.
The most positive figure from the entire report is actually skewed: Those eight companies that did IPO companies raised more money on average, combing out with higher valuations — an average that is weighed down almost entirely by Facebook. But venture-backed companies did raise $21.5 billion (way up from $10.7 billion the year before), which was the strongest annual funding since 2000.
RELATED: Ah, This Is Where the Real Silicon Valley Hackers Are
These numbers match the trends we saw all year, with Facebook's initial stock drop scaring away investors from start-ups, venture capitalists having a hard time raising money for tech ventures, and companies like Kayak pushing off their IPOs as long as possible until market conditions suit edtheir needs. It's just a lot of hesitancy. Part of that might just be a Facebook effect, or maybe 2012 was the "peak of the hype cycle" as Scott Sandell, a venture capitalist at New Enterprise Associates, described the year to The Wall Street Journal's Pui Wing-Tam.
RELATED: Tech Bubble Cautionary Tales: When Equity Replaces Money
And a descent generally follows a peak, right? Still, Sandell doesn't see 2013 as a year of doom or gloom for Silicon Valley. Things are sunny! "The end isn't anywhere near," he said, pointing to bright spots in companies that sell technologies to businesses. Of course, those aren't the big tech 2.0 companies we hear about all the time, the ones that made up the much discussed and much more specific social media bubble. What will become of the Twitters and Tumblrs, the Pinterests and Paths and SnapChats and all the clones they've already spawned? The path is less clear than ever, but, hey, it's only the first week fo January. And it probably won't be as bad as this.

Read More..

Patent hints Apple may bring its own unique stylus to iOS devices

Many people had a good laugh when Samsung (005930) unveiled the Galaxy Note last year and made a big deal out of the device’s Palm Pilot-like stylus. But once the Galaxy Note became a hit, people stopped snickering and began to take the stylus seriously as an accessory once again. Apple (AAPL) is apparently considering hopping on the stylus bandwagon, as HotHardware reports that the company has filed a patent for a pen accessory it describes as an “active stylus” that “can either act as a drive electrode to create an electric field between the drive electrode and the sense lines of a mutual capacitive touch sensor panel, or as a sense electrode for sensing capacitively coupled signals from one or more stimulated drive rows and columns of the touch sensor panel or both.”
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
Putting things into plain English, HotHardware says that this active stylus “would perform the same functions as a traditional stylus, it would just do a better job” by allowing for “more accurate input.”
[More from BGR: Nokia predicted to abandon mobile business, sell assets to Microsoft and Huawei in 2013]
Since Apple has willingly followed market trends over the past year by releasing a larger version of the iPhone and an 8-inch version of the iPad, it shouldn’t be too surprising that Apple is considering adding a stylus to its lineup of iOS products. That said, you probably shouldn’t expect Apple to release an “iNote” phablet anytime in the near future even if the company does release the next-generation iPhone in two different sizes.

Read More..

Quick fix for Boot Camp brings Windows 8 to new iMac computers

Early adopters of Apple’s (AAPL) new iMac computers who chose the 3TB Fusion Drive model have been unable to use Boot Camp Assistant. The program, which allows OS X users to install a Windows partition on their computers, is limited to drives of up to 2.2TB. Apple has hinted that the software may be updated in the future to support larger drives, however no set time frame has been given. Despite the set back, it has been discovered that it is still possible to create a working Boot Camp partition on new iMacs.
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
TwoCanoes Software notes that, “since it is not possible to get around the 2.2 TB limitation with booting Windows, it is possible to organize the partitions so that Windows is the last of the first four partitons [sic] and is within the first 2.2 TBs of space on the drive. Since the Mac can see the remaining space above the 2.2 TB limit, this space can be used for addtional [sic] storage space for OS X.

Read More..

Steve Jobs Film Coming in April

jOBS, the independent film about former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, will arrive in theaters in April, the movie's distributors announced Thursday.
The film -- not to be confused with the one Sony Pictures is creating based on Walter Isaacson's biography of the late tech luminary -- will star Ashton Kutcher as Jobs and is still slated to premiere this month on the closing night of the Sundance Film Festival.
[More from Mashable: ‘Biggest Loser’ Online Hub Gets Makeover for Season 14]
Along with the April release date, distributors Open Road Films and Five Star Feature Films released this deeper synopsis of the jOBS on Thursday:
Directed by Joshua Michael Stern, written by Matthew Whitely, shot by Oscar- winning cinematographer Russell Carpenter and produced by Mark Hulme, jOBS details the major moments and defining characters that influenced Steve Jobs on a daily basis from 1971 through 2000. jOBS plunges into the depths of his character, creating an intense dialogue-driven story that is as much a sweeping epic as it is an immensely personal portrait of Steve Jobs' life. The filmmakers were granted unprecedented access during shooting to the historic garage in Palo Alto, that served as the birthplace to Apple Inc.
[More from Mashable: Which Movie Had the Sloppiest Science in 2012?]
The Sundance Institute shared the jOBS promo image (above) in December. It is a play on this photograph of Jobs on desk during his early Apple days.
Jobs died from pancreatic cancer in October 2011.
Mark Hulme of Five Star describes Kutcher's performance as "inspiring and unforgettable."
Kutcher, who stars in CBS's Two and a Half Men, previously played roles on Fox'sThat '70s Show and in films such as The Butterfly Effect, No Strings Attached, Valentine's Day and Dude, Where's My Car?
SEE ALSO: How Ashton Kutcher Will Look as Steve Jobs in Forthcoming Biopic
jOBS also stars Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas, J.K. Simmons and Matthew Modine. Inferno Entertainment is handling international sales on jOBS.
Steve Jobs demos Apple Macintosh, 1984

Steve Jobs introduces the Macintosh to the world. Computing would never be the same.
Click here to view this gallery.

Read More..

This Is What the OUYA Kickstarter Console Looks Like

The OUYA, the $99 Android console, is indeed smaller than a soda can.
Click here to view this gallery.
[More from Mashable: 10 Killer Cases for the Samsung Galaxy S III]
The $99 hackable Android-based gaming console OUYA is fulfilling its orders for Kickstarter backers by sending the first units out to developers. Backers began receiving their OUYA consoles as early as last Friday.
According to the OUYA blog, 1,200 consoles have been sent out to developers. While these aren't the final run of the OUYA that consumers will receive, they have enough pieces to get developers started making games for the console. Developers receive a rooted console, along with two transparent, prototype controllers specially designed for the console.
[More from Mashable: This Is the Best Soda Drinking Simulator You’ll Play All Week]
The OUYA raised more than $8 million on Kickstarter last summer, promising to open the television to all developers by including an SDK with every console and encouraging users to hack the system.
While questions were raised about whether the OUYA would be able to deliver on time to its Kickstarter backers, releasing the developer unit and API by the end of December met the promise listed on the Kickstarter page.
Game creator Dave Schrader gave Mashable pictures of his developer unit that he received Monday. You can check them out in the gallery above.
Are you excited about or skeptical of the OUYA? Let us know in the comments.

Read More..

Google escapes antitrust suit as FTC ends its investigation into alleged ‘patent abuse’

Good news for Google (GOOG): It will at least avoid an antitrust lawsuit in the United States. The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday formally concluded its investigation into whether Google allegedly abused the patents that it acquired in the Motorola deal to block rival products over technologies that have become industry standards. Google did have to make some key concessions to end the investigation, including giving its competitors access to its FRAND patents, giving “online advertisers more flexibility to simultaneously manage ad campaigns on Google’s AdWords platform and on rival ad platforms,” and refraining “from misappropriating online content from so-called ‘vertical’ websites that focus on specific categories such as shopping or travel for use in its own vertical offerings.” Ending the investigation with only offering voluntary concessions represents a major victory for a company that earlier this year seemed to be headed for an antitrust lawsuit much like the one filed against Microsoft (MSFT) back in 1998.

Read More..

FTC ends long Google probe with mild reprimand

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Regulators on Thursday closed a long-running investigation of Google with a relatively mild agreement that is likely to disappoint rivals and critics of the Web search giant.
Under the agreement, Google agreed to end the practice of "scraping" reviews and other data from rivals' websites for its own products, and to allow advertisers to export data to independently evaluate advertising campaigns, the Federal Trade Commission said.
FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said Google also agreed to license standard patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

Read More..

It's 'cash only' now for tourists at the Vatican

VATICAN CITY (AP) — It's "cash only" now for tourists at the Vatican wanting to pay for museum tickets, souvenirs and other services after Italy's central bank decided to block electronic payments, including credit cards, at the tiny city-state.
Deutsche Bank Italia, which for some 15 years had provided the Vatican with electronic payment services, said Thursday that the Bank of Italy had pulled its authorization after Dec. 31.
The Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that the Italian central bank took the action because the Holy See has not yet fully complied with European Union safeguards against money laundering. That means Italian banks are not authorized to operate within the Vatican, which is in the process of improving its mechanisms to combat laundering.
The Vatican says it is scrambling to solve the problem for thousands of visitors who flock to its very popular Vatican Museums, which include highlights like the Sistine Chapel. The Holy See had no immediate comment on the Bank of Italy's reported reasons.
Tourists in the long lines Thursday that snaked around Vatican City walls were not happy about the inconvenience.
"It's certainly a disadvantage," said Giuseppe Amoruso, an Italian. "Credit cards provide a useful service, which needs to be accessible to everybody, everywhere."
"A lot of tourists don't have cash on them, so they have to get euros and don't know where to get them," said Fluger William Hunter, an American tourist.
The central bank said a routine inspection found that Deutsche Bank Italia hadn't sought authorization when it first started providing services at the Vatican. When it finally did, the Bank of Italy turned it down because the Vatican's banking norms, including measures to combat money laundering, didn't meet Italy's more stringent criteria of recent years, a central bank official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because there was no official statement on the case.
The Vatican has been striving to upgrade its measures to detect and discourage money laundering, hiring a Swiss expert just a few months ago. Last summer, the Holy See passed a key European financial transparency test but received failing grades for its financial watchdog agency and its bank, formally called the Institute for Religious Works.
The museums, with their entrance fees and popular souvenir shops, are a big money-maker for the Vatican. Other Vatican attractions, such as tours of the Vatican's ancient underground spaces, also charge admission.

Read More..

British retailers start online sales early

 British retailers have brought forward their Christmas clearance sales online in the hope that shoppers will log on to buy bargains and offset lackluster spending in stores.
Marks & Spencer launched its sale online at midday on Monday, it said on its website, while department store John Lewis said it would cut online prices when its stores close at 1700 GMT. Debenhams has already started its online sale.
Retailers in recent years have started sales online on Christmas Day, ahead of the clearances in stores from Boxing Day, but are increasingly launching their online offers before Christmas after delivery deadlines for the day have passed.
Hard-pressed shoppers have been leaving it later to buy presents in the hope that retailers would slash prices, the British Retail Consortium said.
It was forecasting that 5 billion pounds ($8.1 billion) would be spent in the shops on Saturday and Sunday combined, the last weekend before Christmas.
Richard Dodd, the BRC's head of Media and Campaigns, said weekend trading had met expectations.
"Christmas, ultimately once all the final sums are done, will turn out to be acceptable but not exceptional," he said.
He said the sector expected a modest increase in cash spending against a year go, but not necessarily any significant increase in real terms once inflation was stripped out.
Many British families' budgets are stretched, according to a survey from Markit that showed the biggest deterioration in household finances for seven months.
Analyst Howard Archer at IHS Global Insight said the weakening in household finances could not come at a worse time for retailers, and it highlighted why many people appeared to have been careful in their Christmas shopping this year.
"The suspicion has to be that consumers will be especially keen to take advantage of genuine major bargains in the sales to acquire items that they cannot otherwise afford or are reluctant to make at the moment," he said.
"However, we suspect that people will likely to be more careful in buying - or reluctant to buy - items that they don't really want or need in the sales."

Read More..

China may require real name registration for internet access

 China may require internet users to register with their real names when signing up to network providers, state media said on Tuesday, extending a policy already in force with microblogs in a bid to curb what officials call rumors and vulgarity.
A law being discussed this week would mean people would have to present their government-issued identity cards when signing contracts for fixed line and mobile internet access, state-run newspapers said.
"The law should escort the development of the internet to protect people's interest," Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily said in a front page commentary, echoing similar calls carried in state media over the past week.
"Only that way can our internet be healthier, more cultured and safer."
Many users say the restrictions are clearly aimed at further muzzling the often scathing, raucous - and perhaps most significantly, anonymous - online chatter in a country where the Internet offers a rare opportunity for open debate.
It could also prevent people from exposing corruption online if they fear retribution from officials, said some users.
It was unclear how the rules would be different from existing regulations as state media has provided only vague details and in practice customers have long had to present identity papers when signing contracts with internet providers.
Earlier this year, the government began forcing users of Sina Corp's wildly successful Weibo microblogging platform to register their real names.
The government says such a system is needed to prevent people making malicious and anonymous accusations online and that many other countries already have such rules.
"It would also be the biggest step backwards since 1989," wrote one indignant Weibo user, in apparent reference to the 1989 pro-democracy protests bloodily suppressed by the army.
Chinese internet users have long had to cope with extensive censorship, especially over politically sensitive topics like human rights, and popular foreign sites Facebook, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube are blocked.
Despite periodic calls for political reform, the ruling Communist Party has shown no sign of loosening its grip on power and brooks no dissent to its authority.

Read More..

Tajikistan blocks scores of websites as election looms

 Tajikistan blocked access to more than 100 websites on Tuesday, in what a government source said was a dress rehearsal for a crackdown on online dissent before next year's election when President Imomali Rakhmon will again run for office.
Rakhmon, a 60-year-old former head of a Soviet cotton farm, has ruled the impoverished Central Asian nation of 7.5 million for 20 years. He has overseen constitutional amendments that allow him to seek a new seven-year term in November 2013.
The Internet remains the main platform where Tajiks can air grievances and criticize government policies at a time when the circulation of local newspapers is tiny and television is tightly controlled by the state.
Tajikistan's state communications service blocked 131 local and foreign Internet sites "for technical and maintenance works".
"Most probably, these works will be over in a week," Tatyana Kholmurodova, deputy head of the service, told Reuters. She declined to give the reason for the work, which cover even some sites with servers located abroad.
The blocked resources included Russia's popular social networking sites www.my.mail.ru and VKontakte (www.vk.com), as well as Tajik news site TJKnews.com and several local blogs.
"The government has ordered the communications service to test their ability to block dozens of sites at once, should such a need arise," a senior government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
"It is all about November 2013," he said, in a clear reference to the presidential election.
Other blocked websites included a Ukrainian soccer site, a Tajik rap music site, several local video-sharing sites and a pornography site.
VOLATILE NATION
Predominantly Muslim Tajikistan, which lies on a major transit route for Afghan drugs to Europe and Russia, remains volatile after a 1992-97 civil war in which Rakhmon's Moscow-backed secular government clashed with Islamist guerrillas.
Rakhmon justifies his authoritarian methods by saying he wants to oppose radical Islam. But some of his critics argue repression and poverty push many young Tajiks to embrace it.
Tighter Internet controls echo measures taken by other former Soviet republics of Central Asia, where authoritarian rulers are wary of the role social media played in revolutions in the Arab world and mass protests in Russia.
The government this year set up a volunteer-run body to monitor Internet use and reprimand those who openly criticize Rakhmon and other officials.
In November, Tajikistan blocked access to Facebook, saying it was spreading "mud and slander" about its veteran leader.
The authorities unblocked Facebook after concern was expressed by the United States and European Union, the main providers of humanitarian aid for Tajikistan, where almost a half of the population lives in abject poverty.
Asomiddin Asoyev, head of Tajikistan's association of Internet providers, said authorities were trying to create an illusion that there were no problems in Tajik society by silencing online criticism.
"This is self-deception," he told Reuters. "The best way of resolving a problem is its open discussion with civil society."
Moscow-based Central Asia expert Arkady Dubnov told Reuters that Rakhmon's authoritarian measures could lead to a backlash against the president in the election. "Trying to position itself as the main guarantor of stability through repression against Islamist activists, the Dushanbe government is actually achieving the reverse - people's trust in it is falling," he said.

Read More..

Netflix suffers Christmas Eve outage, points to Amazon

An outage at one of Amazon's web service centers hit users of Netflix Inc.'s streaming video service on Christmas Eve and was not fully resolved until Christmas day, a spokesman for the movie rental company said on Tuesday.
The outage impacted Netflix subscribers across Canada, Latin America and the United States, and affected various devices that enable users to stream movies and television shows from home, Netflix spokesman Joris Evers said. Such devices range from gaming consoles such as Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 to Blu-ray players.
Evers said that the issue was the result of an outage at an Amazon Web Services' cloud computing center in Virginia, and started at about 12:30 p.m. PST (2030 GMT) on Monday and was fully restored Tuesday morning, although streaming was available for most users late on Monday.
"We are investigating exactly what happened and how it could have been prevented," Evers said.
"We are happy that people opening gifts of Netflix or Netflix capable devices can watch TV shows and movies and apologize for any inconvenience caused last night," he added.
An outage at Amazon Web Services, or AWS, knocked out such sites as Reddit and Foursquare in April of last year.
Amazon Web Services was not immediately available for comment. Evers, the Netflix spokesman, declined to comment on the company's contracts with Amazon.

Read More..

Netflix blames Amazon for Christmas Eve outage

An outage at one of Amazon's web service centers hit users of Netflix Inc's streaming video service on Christmas Eve and was not fully resolved until Christmas Day, a spokesman for the movie rental company said on Tuesday.
The outage impacted Netflix subscribers across Canada, Latin America and the United States, and affected various devices that enable users to stream movies and television shows from home, Netflix spokesman Joris Evers said. Such devices range from gaming consoles like the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 to Blu-ray DVD players.
Netflix, which is based in Los Gatos, California, has 30 million streaming subscribers worldwide, of which more than 27 million are in the Americas region that was exposed to the outage and could have potentially been affected, Evers said.
Evers said the issue was the result of an outage at an Amazon Web Services' cloud computing center in Virginia and started at about 12:30 p.m. PST (2030 GMT) on Monday and was fully restored before 8:00 a.m. PST Tuesday morning, although streaming was available for most users by 11:00 p.m. PST on Monday.
The event marks the latest in a series of outages from Amazon Web Services, with one occurring in April of last year that knocked out such sites as Reddit and Foursquare.
"We are investigating exactly what happened and how it could have been prevented," Evers of Netflix said.
"We are happy that people opening gifts of Netflix or Netflix capable devices can watch TV shows and movies and apologize for any inconvenience caused last night," he added.
Officials at Amazon Web Services were not available for comment. Evers, the Netflix spokesman, declined to comment on the company's contracts with Amazon.

Read More..

Buying your own botnet costs as little as $250

Botnets used to be the exclusive domain of high-powered hackers looking to rake in cash from spam operations or to conduct highly effective DDoS attacks. But now Symantec has found that botnets are increasingly becoming available to less sophisticated hacker wannabes and are being sold for as little as $250. [More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]] After trolling around on some of the darker corners of the Internet, Symantec researchers stumbled upon a seller marketing a “Zeus Fully Setup Botnet + Bulletproof Hosting” for $250 that includes source code, binaries, user guides and a control panel. Symantec also found other purported botnets on sale for as much as $1,000, although the firm believes that at least some of these advertised botnets are scams. [More from BGR: Google Maps causes huge spike in iOS 6 adoption] Even so, the company says the rise of for-sale botnets is significant because “previously, it was necessary to be a member of an exclusive community to purchase these files, but it appears that it is now getting easier.”

Read More..

Samsung will patch malware exploit affecting Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II

Samsung (005930) Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II owners had a big scare last week when it was discovered the smartphones are vulnerable to app-based attacks stemming from a security hole with their Exynos-4 processors. Samsung confirmed to Android Central that it has investigated the “potential security issue” and re-states that the “issue may arise only when a malicious application is operated on the affected devices; however, this does not affect most devices operating credible and authenticated applications.” Nonetheless, Samsung will be releasing a software update “to address it as quickly as possible.” Samsung’s swift action is reassurance that it values the more than 30 million Galaxy S III and more than 5 million Galaxy Note II customers it has racked up this year.

Read More..

Kodak in $525 million patent deal, eyes bankruptcy end

Eastman Kodak Co agreed to sell its digital imaging patents for about $525 million, a key step to bringing the photography pioneer out of bankruptcy in the first half of 2013.
The deal for the 1,100 patents allows Kodak to fulfill a condition for securing $830 million in financing.
The patent deal was reached with a consortium led by Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corp, and which includes some of the world's biggest technology companies, which will license or acquire the patents.
Those companies are Adobe Systems Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, Facebook Inc, Fujifilm, Google Inc, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, HTC Corp, Microsoft Corp, Research In Motion Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Shutterfly Inc, according to court documents.
Kodak still must sell its personalized and document-imaging businesses as part of the financing package, and also has to resolve its UK pension obligation.
Kodak said the patent deal puts it on a path to emerge from Chapter 11 in the first half of 2013.
"Our progress has accelerated over the past several weeks as we prepare to emerge as a strong, sustainable company," said Antonio Perez, chairman and chief executive of the Rochester, New York-based company.
The patent portfolio was expected to be a major asset for Kodak when it filed for bankruptcy in January. An outside firm had estimated the patents could be worth as much as $2.6 billion.
Kodak's patents hit the market as intellectual property values have soared and technology companies have plowed money into patent-related litigation.
For example, last year Nortel Networks sold 6,000 wireless patents in a bankruptcy auction for $4.5 billion and earlier this year Google spent $12.5 billion for patent-rich Motorola Mobility.
But Kodak's patent auction dragged on beyond the initial expectation that it would be wrapped up in August. One patent specialist blamed those early, overly optimistic valuations, which he said encouraged Kodak's team to set their sights too high.
"Unfortunately (Kodak management) was misled into thinking it was worth billions of dollars and it wasn't," said Alex Poltorak, chairman of General Patent Corp, a patent licensing firm. "I think they sold them at a very good price."
He said after Google acquired Motorola, the search engine company no longer needed patents at any price, deflating the intellectual property market.
Kodak traces its roots to the 19th century and invented the handheld camera. But it has been unable to successfully shift to digital imaging.
It will likely be a different company when it exits bankruptcy, out of the consumer business and focused instead on providing products and services to the commercial imaging market.
The patent sale is subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.
The Kodak bankruptcy case is in Re: Eastman Kodak Co. et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-10202.

Read More..

Kodak acuerda venta patentes por 525 mln dlr, busca fin bancarrota

 La firma Eastman Kodak Company acordó vender sus patentes de imágenes digitales en una operación valuada en 525 millones de dólares, un paso clave para que la empresa pionera de la fotografía pueda salir de la bancarrota en el primer semestre del 2013.
El acuerdo por 1.100 patentes permite a Kodak cumplir una condición para conseguir 830 millones de dólares de financiamiento.
El acuerdo sobre patentes se logró con un consorcio liderado por Intellectual Ventures y RPX Corp, que incluye a algunas de la compañías de tecnología más grandes del mundo, que comprarán o licenciarán las patentes.
Esas compañías son Adobe Systems Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, Facebook Inc, Fujifilm, Google Inc, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, HTC Corp, Microsoft Corp, Research In Motion Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd y Shutterfly Inc, según documentos de la corte.
Kodak aún debe vender su negocio de imágenes personalizadas y de documentos como parte del paquete de financiamiento, y además debe resolver sus obligaciones de pensiones en el Reino Unido.
La compañía dijo que el acuerdo de patentes la pone en camino a salir de la bancarrota en la primera mitad del 2013.
"Nuestros avances se han acelerado durante las últimas semanas a medida que nos preparamos para surgir como una compañía sólida y sostenible", dijo Antonio Pérez, presidente ejecutivo de la firma con sede en Rochester, Nueva York.
Cuando Kodak solicitó la bancarrota en enero, se esperaba que la cartera de patentes fuera un enorme activo para la empresa. Una compañía externa había estimado que las patentes pudiesen valer hasta 2.600 millones de dólares.
Las patentes de Kodak salieron al mercado en momentos en que los valores de la propiedad intelectual se han disparado y las compañías de tecnología han destinado mucho dinero a litigios legales relativos a patentes.
Por ejemplo, Nortel Networks vendió el año pasado 6.000 patentes inalámbricas en una subasta por bancarrota por 4.500 millones de dólares y anteriormente este año Google gastó 12.500 millones de dólares por Motorola Mobility, que tiene una amplia cartera de patentes.
Pero la subasta de patentes de Kodak se prolongó más allá de las expectativas iniciales, que apuntaban a una conclusión en agosto. Un especialista en patentes culpó a las estimaciones iniciales extremadamente optimistas, que dijo alentaron al equipo de Kodak a poner sus metas demasiado altas.
"Lamentablemente (la gerencia de Kodak) fue engañada y creyó que valía miles de millones de dólares, pero no era así", dijo Alex Poltorak, presidente de General Patent Corp, una firma de licencias de patentes. "Creo que las vendieron a un muy buen precio", agregó.
El dijo que después de que Google compró a Motorola, la compañía de búsquedas en internet ya no necesitaba patentes a ningún precio, lo que hizo caer los precios del mercado de propiedad intelectual.
Las raíces de Kodak se remontan al Siglo XIX e inventó la cámara portátil. Pero no ha podido girar con éxito a la fotografía digital.
Posiblemente será una compañía diferente cuando salga de la bancarrota, fuera del negocio para los consumidores y concentrada, en cambio, en brindar productos y servicios al mercado de imágenes comerciales.
Los acuerdos están sujetos a la aprobación de la Corte de Bancarrota de Estados Unidos en Manhattan.

Read More..

Kodak sells digital imaging patents for $525M

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Eastman Kodak is selling its digital imaging patents for about $525 million, money the struggling photo pioneer says will help it emerge from bankruptcy protection in the first half of next year.
Apple Inc., Google Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., Research In Motion Ltd., Microsoft Corp., China's Huawei Technologies, Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. are among the 12 companies paying to license the 1,100 patents, according to court filings. Patents have become very valuable to digital device makers, who want to protect themselves from intellectual property lawsuits. But Kodak, which has been trying to make the sale happen for more than a year, wound up receiving substantially less money than had been expected.
Rochester, N.Y.-based Eastman Kodak Co. said Wednesday that the patent sale will help it repay a substantial amount of a loan it received under the bankruptcy process. It also satisfies a key condition of a new, cheaper $830 million loan package, which required that the patents be sold for at least $500 million.
Founded in 1880, Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January after a long struggle to stay relevant. First came competition from Japanese companies, then the shift from film to digital photography over the past decade. Kodak failed to keep up. The once-mighty company, whose workforce peaked at 145,300 in 1988, said at the end of September that it expected to wind up with 13,100 employees after another round of job cuts.
Since filing for bankruptcy protection, Kodak has sold off several businesses, such as its online photo service, and said it would shut down other divisions, including the manufacturing of digital cameras. The company intends to focus on commercial and packaging printing. It sees home photo printers, high-speed commercial inkjet presses, software and packaging as the core of its business as it emerges from bankruptcy.
Kodak began mining its patent portfolio for license revenue in 2008. In January 2010, it sued Apple and RIM, saying that smartphone makers infringed its patent for technology that lets a camera preview low-resolution versions of a moving image while recording still images at higher resolutions.
But by July 2011, it was trying to sell its 1,100 digital imaging patents. Analysts initially thought the portfolio could fetch between $2 billion and $3 billion. But Kodak struggled to find a buyer.
The 12 licensees for Kodak's imaging patents were organized by Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corp. Kodak spokesman Christopher Veronda said each licensee will pay a portion of the total cost and then have access to all the patents. The deal also includes an agreement to settle patent-related litigation.
The sale represents "another major milestone toward successful emergence" from bankruptcy, said Antonio M. Perez, Kodak's chairman and CEO, in a statement. "Our progress has accelerated over the past several weeks as we prepare to emerge as a strong, sustainable company."
Kodak will keep ownership of about 9,600 patents, focused mostly on commercial imaging and printing technologies.

Read More..