AOL Sells 800 PATENTS To Microsoft For $1 BILLION. G’damn.

AOL. It was a glory of my adolescence years, letting me into my first batches of both pornography and interactions with like-minded gamers and deviants. These days AOL ain’t doing so well, and that makes me frown.

Gizmodo:

In an internal memo sent out this morning, AOL informed employees that it will sell 800 patents for $1 billion to Microsoft. Translation: AOL is severing organs and handing them over to Microsoft for badly needed cash. Microsoft, in turn, walks away with an arsenal of patents it can use to fight critical battles with bigger foes down the road.

In the memo,reported by AOL-owned TechCrunch, CEO Tim Armstrong says the deal is aimed at “unlocking the value of our patent portfolio.” According to the memo:

This morning, we announced that we’ve agreed to sell 800 of our patents and their related applications to Microsoft for $1.056 billion in cash. Most importantly, for the future growth trajectory and innovation for our business, we will continue to hold a significant patent portfolio of over 300 patents and patent applications spanning core and strategic technologies, including advertising, search, content generation/management, social networking, mapping, multimedia/streaming and security among others. AOL also received a perpetual license to the patents being sold to Microsoft, which allows us to continue to innovate and drive strategic growth across all areas of our business.

If AOL is really selling off parts of itself to stave off doom, I’d love to take on the private rooms GIF1 and GIF2. That’s where all the fun happened for me.