RIM and Visto Patent Settlement Reached for $267.5 Million

By Contributor Wireless and Mobile News on July 16, 2009 12:12 PM

Research In Motion Limited (RIM) maker of BlackBerry smartphones and Visto Corporation ("Visto") announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to settle all outstanding worldwide patent litigation between the companies.

Visto was the first company to offer push email outside a network in 1996. They previously won a patent settlement with Microsoft in 2008. Visto acquired Good Technology on March 2, 2009 another company it also sued. They then changed the Visto name to Good Technology.

RIM will get a perpetual and fully-paid license on all Visto patents, a transfer of certain Visto intellectual property, a one-time payment by RIM of US $ 267.5 million and the parties executing full and final releases in respect of all outstanding worldwide litigation.

The settlement is expected to be completed during the week of July 20, 2009 and is subject to certain closing conditions.

Based on preliminary analysis, RIM expects the majority of the payment to be expensed as an unusual item in the second quarter of fiscal 2010, with the remainder being classified as an intangible asset. Based on this analysis, RIM expects to report Q2 results that reflect U.S. GAAP earnings and earnings per share, as well as adjusted earnings and earnings per share, which would exclude the amount expensed as an unusual item.