Facebook has quietly protected its dominant position in social networking by buying the Friendster portfolio of patents from MOL Global.
A Facebook spokeswoman confirmed the deal – which covers seven patents and 11 pending patent applications – to VentureBeat, but didn’t disclose terms. GigaOm reports that the deal was valued at $40 million and included a combination of advertising, a partnership for payments for virtual goods, and cash.
MOL bought Friendster, which is still popular in parts of South-East Asia, for $39.5 million last year. MOL is a payment partner for Facebook Credits, allowing users in Asia to buy the virtual currency in retail stores.
The patents are broad and include things like compatibility scoring for users in a social network. They can be viewed online at the US Patent and Trademark Office database.
It’s thought that Facebook is buying the patents mainly as a protective move to prevent potential intellectual property violation claims.
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The social with the most friends possible! all the word it's on Facebook!
Comment by dotgolf — October 19, 2011 @ 4:33 am
[...] Kimmel wondered how Facebook would enforce its mandatory conversion by all users to the timeline profile, and then cut to a sketch where a person using Facebook saw his apartment invaded by the Facebook Police, who forced him to change his profile picture, respond to a poke, and accept his mother’s friend request. At the end of the skit, the host returns to say, “I miss Friendster.” [...]
Pingback by WATCH: Facebook Police Raid ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ — January 26, 2012 @ 1:07 pm