Blackberry sells legacy patents, still plans to launch phone this year

Blackberry is selling off its legacy patents for $600 million to Catapult IP innovations, a US-based company formed solely for the deal by York Eggleston, owner of Software Company Semantic labs, and an entrepreneur known for amassing patent portfolios.   

The deal has been in the works since 2020 and will include its legacy patents related to wireless networking, mobile devices and messaging. The financing for the deal was led by Canadian private credit firm Third Eye capital.   

Blackberry will get $450 million in cash along with a promissory note worth $150 million at the closing of the transaction, which is expected to take upto seven months. 

Also read: How BlackBerry went from defining smartphones to losing the market

On 4 January, Blackberry announced that it will terminate the services of devices running on BB 7.1 AND BB10 versions. The company’s smartphones were the rage in the market in the early 2000s among executives, businessmen and many legions of fans. 

Although the company’s core business today lies in software used in the automotive industry and cybersecurity solutions, Blackberry has still not completely shut the doors on its smartphone business. On 12 January, Blackberry announced that it will revive its smartphone sales with the launch of a new 5G enabled keypad phone, set to come to market sometime later this year. 

OnwardMobility, which owns the BlackBerry brand, reiterated that it will deliver BlackBerry smartphone with a physical keyboard, later this year. 

While there is no news on how the phone will look, media reports expect it to consist of a mid-range Qualcomm chipset, and design cues similar to Key 2, the last smartphone it launched in 2018.