Quaterhill may be in the midst of diversifying its revenues, but it showed this week that the patent licensing business can still pay dividends as the Ottawa firm settled deals with two big names.
WiLAN, now a subsidiary of Quarterhill (TSX:QTRH)(NASDAQ:QTRH), announced this week that it had settled licensing agreements with both Ericsson and Amazon. Financial details were not disclosed for either deal, but the Ericsson agreement, announced yesterday, concerned an LTE wireless patent.
Fewer details were available for today’s Amazon agreement, the company saying only that the license resolves pending litigations in Germany. Nonetheless, shareholders reacted positively to the news as the stock price ended the day up 6.35 per cent to reach $2.01, the highest level in roughly a month.
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The Ottawa-based patent licensing firm officially became Quarterhill Inc. on June 6, also announcing on the first of the month that it had completed its acquisition of International Road Dynamics in a deal valued at $63.5 million.
The acquisition, as well as another announced last month, marks the company’s first ventures into the industrial Internet of Things, a market interim CEO Shawn McEwan told OBJ he believes will be worth trillions in the coming years.
Quarterhill also announced earlier this month that its new M&A strategy will be led by John Varghese, senior vice-president of corporate investments.
