HP sold off most of webOS to LG last year, but it was still sitting on a lot of the patents it got when buying the company back in 2010. Qualcomm has announced today that it was happy to take those patents off HP's hands, along with some other choice bits of IP.
In addition to the Palm patents, Qualcomm is getting IP covering HP's now defunct IPAQ devices and Bitfone mobile software (from an acquisition back in 2006). The final count is 1,400 granted and pending US patents, with another 1,000 for other countries.
Qualcomm is a chip company and doesn't make consumer handheld devices on its own anymore, but many of the patents it now holds cover such products. This is possibly a hedge against future litigation, but maybe Qualcomm wants to keep its options open or license patents to other companies. It did mention in the PR that the deal allows it to provide more value to future licensees, but that could mean plenty of things. Qualcomm and HP have agreed to keep the dollar figure a secret, but it was probably a lot. Yay for vague business dealings!
[Qualcomm]
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