nsane.forums Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 Microsoft and AOL linked up in a billion dollar patent sale that will give Microsoft ownership of the patents for Netscape. Microsoft not only killed the browser, but it now owns its soul. If you had a time machine (no, not that time machine) and went back to the 1990s and said that Microsoft would one day buy Netscape’s patents, most would have laughed at you. Fast forward to this morning when AOL announced that it will be selling 1 billion dollars worth of patents to Microsoft and that is exactly what is happening according to AllthingsD.com. The information comes from that announcement where AOL said that it will be selling off stock of a subsidiary and according to reports, that subsidiary is Netscape. Not that we needed to rubber stamp that Netscape was dead but this effectively makes Netscape part of Microsoft. “AOL didn’t disclose the name of that subsidiary in its press release, but a person familiar with the transaction has clued me in: It’s Netscape. Microsoft will buy the underlying patents for the old browser, but AOL will hang onto the brand, and the related Netscape businesses, which make up a grab-bag of stuff these days: An ISP, a URL, a brand name, etc.” While the brand name will not be transferred to Microsoft, everything that made Netscape tick will now be in control of Ballmer and company. In total, Microsoft bought 800 patents from AOL for a cool billion dollars and most of the money is expected to be returned to shareholders. View: Original Article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oZ. Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Netscape = Firefox since 2004 ? :showoff:correct me if im wrong.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted April 10, 2012 Administrator Share Posted April 10, 2012 Netscape = Firefox since 2004 ? :showoff: correct me if im wrong.... True. Firefox is based on Netscape. What worries me that now M$ has all the patents, if it wants, it can go after Firefox directly. :mellow: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ambrocious Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Oh dear God.....NO!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digimon Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Netscape = Firefox since 2004 ? :showoff: correct me if im wrong.... True. Firefox is based on Netscape. What worries me that now M$ has all the patents, if it wants, it can go after Firefox directly. :mellow:few things to consder is that most of these patents expire sometime this decade so that limits the damage if any more importantly mozzila has enough money to probably license it and most importantly microsoft has sent cakes to mozzila before when they shipped firefox i doubt if they wanted to kill firefox that theyed had sent cakes besides these patents where long since granted a license for use by the mozzila foundation and just because they are now owned by microsoft does not void that license Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndoe Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 and most importantly microsoft has sent cakes to mozzila before when they shipped firefox i doubt if they wanted to kill firefox that theyed had sent cakes maybe they were poisoned cakes :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BDX Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 I wouldn't mind if Firefox dies. But sadly it won't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweety.Abd Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 How did Microsoft 'kill' Netscape Navigator? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digimon Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 How did Microsoft 'kill' Netscape Navigator?the orginal netscape is what there reffering to it was due to bundling internet explorer with windows they couldn't compete with what people saw as free software vs paying for netscape so they went under but before that they relased the source code then shortly after source code was released aol bought them (that source code led to firefox a small amount of that code is still in firefox today most of it was rewritten) http://en.wikipedia....es_v._Microsoft thats what the whole us antitrust was about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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