Google continues to load up on patents, purchases Magnolia Broadband's portfolio

When Google acquired Android years ago, they clearly did not anticipate the patent war that would result from their successful move to being a mobile platform provider. In retrospect it seems obvious that this would happen, as Google’s relative corporate youth meant it lacked a strong patent portfolio it could leverage to negotiate legal cease-fires. The result has been a yearlong patent buying spree of epic proportions.

Their most recent acquisition is from Magnolia Broadband, which apparently sold its entire patent portfolio to El Goog for a wad o' cash of undisclosed dimensions. The deal was made public by Mooreland Partners, the financial firm that advised Magnolia on the deal. Their brief press release reads as follows:


CrunchBase indicates that Magnolia Broadband is the leading innovator (and patent holder) behind Mobile Transit Diversity, a “beam forming” technology that allows wireless network providers to improve data speeds and coverage without having to make physical changes to their base stations. Which is an interesting set of patents, but not necessarily ones that would be useful in the ongoing mobile devices patent wars.

Which leads us to the question: what are they for? We should note that this isn't the first time Google has shown an interest in wireless networks - they were granted a patent for a method of bidding for network bandwidth this spring. We’re not quite ready to believe that Google plans to move into the data pipeline business in a big way (although they are laying a lot of high-speed fiber in Kansas City); perhaps these data transmission patents will play a role in some of the whole-home automation and audio projects Google is rumored to be working on?

sources: Engadget, CrunchBase