Yesterday evening, news broke that Nokia has sold off its entire Qt development framework to Digia for an undisclosed amount. After acquiring Qt’s commercial licensing and services business from Nokia last year, Digia now acquired Nokia’s entire Qt development team. Qt, for those who are interested, is a framework which allows for cross-platform development of applications. It was meant to be the cornerstone of Nokia’s new direction last year before the deal with Microsoft.
Interestingly, today Vringo announced it has purchased a bundle of 500 patents from Nokia worth around $22 million. Out of the 124 patent families, 31 are “declared essential by Nokia to wireless communications standards”. Also, as part of the agreement, Nokia will receive 35% of any royalties derived from the patents should Vringo exceed $22 million in revenue. Who is Vringo, you might ask? According to the press release, Vringo is “a company engaged in the innovation, development and monetization of mobile technologies and intellectual property”. However, most consumers would know them as makers of video ringtones. We’ll let your form your own opinion on this one.
(Source: The Verge (1), (2), Engadget)
(Photo Source: camanocommunity.net)
