What are BlackBerry's patents worth?
According to Chris Marlett, CEO of MDB Capital Group, BlackBerry currently has 5,236 active U.S. patents and about 3,730 active applications in the wireless communications space. Some people might say so what? Well please recall that Nortel's patent portfolio of more than 6,000 wireless patents sold for $4.5 billion in 2011. Also remember that Google (GOOG) spent $12.5 billion to buy Motorola, citing the company's patent portfolio. So BlackBerry's patents alone might be worth the company's current market cap. In money terms, that means about $4-$5 billion.