Business |
Alcatel-Lucent value lies in the patents
Alcatel-Lucent has lost 30% of its market value since the last interim report was presented last week. Once worth 100 billion USD, now, they are down to 7,8 billion. But if need would arise, could the company be saved through its patents?
It is easy to think of the Nortel-case here. A company that had a majority of its assets in the very patents it owned. Fact is, Alcatel-Lucent might be a case of same-same but different. According to Bloomberg, Alcatel-Lucent patents might be worth 9 billion USD according to some, 20 billion USD according to others. (Some would argue that the value is far greater still)
The range of the patents are very wide and might be interesting for a number of different companies out there. The patents for baseband station communication alone might be worth as much as 9 billion – twice the entire Nortel portfolio.
Just as was the case with Nortel, the value of the patents may lie in the fact that they can be used as weapons. Among other things to prevent players from getting into the market.
