三星成功收購黑莓的落足點:專利
Both Samsung and BlackBerry quickly put the kibosh on a report Wednesday afternoon that the two are engaged in takeover talks. But why would the world’s biggest smartphone company pay a rumored $7.5 billion for a Canadian tech company whose glory days are past? Answer: Its rich intellectual property portfolio—especially all its juicy security innovations.
對於上週有媒體稱三星和黑莓正在進行收購洽淡的報道，兩家公司都迅速予以否認。但全球最大的智能手機廠商爲何願意付出傳聞中的75億美元高價，來收購一家盛年不再的加拿大技術公司呢？答案是：因爲後者持有豐富的知識產權——尤其是在前景光明的安全創新領域。
The excitement was triggered by a Reuters story that cited documents about the potential transaction as the source of its information. Samsung actually has made at least one play for BlackBerry BBRY -19.77% before, in 2012. As to this latest rumor, the alleged takeover target was the first to refute that a deal is in the works.
引發收購熱議的是一篇路透社的報道，報道援引了一份關於潛在交易的文檔作爲消息源。實際上，三星已經至少一次地表示過對黑莓的興趣了，那時還是2012年。而對於最新的謠言，傳聞被收購的目標黑莓首先跳出來否認交易正在進行。“BlackBerry has not engaged in discussions with Samsung with respect to any possible offer to purchase BlackBerry,” the company said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon. “BlackBerry’s policy is not to comment on rumors or speculation, and accordingly it does not intend to comment further.”
黑莓在週三下午的一份聲明中表示：“黑莓尚未與三星進行過任何潛在的收購談判。黑莓的方針是不對謠言和揣測加以評論，因此我們也不會對此做出進一步說明。”
Samsung’s comment was shorter: “Media reports of the acquisition are groundless.”
三星的聲明則更加簡短：“媒體對收購的報道毫無根據。”At the center of the speculation is BlackBerry’s healthy intellectual property portfolio, 44,000 patents and still growing. Last October, for example, the company won at least 27 new ones—covering everything from conference-calling interfaces to touch screens to security features for wearable technologies such as smart watches, eyeglasses and fitness bands. Security continues to be BlackBerry’s biggest selling point with businesses. Just ask the Sony movie studio division, which “resorted” to outdated BlackBerrys to restart communications after its security breach last Thanksgiving.
人們揣測的重點在於黑莓健全的知識產權體系。黑莓擁有4.4萬項專利，這一數值還在持續增長。比如就在去年10月，該公司就至少獲得了27項專利，涉及領域涵蓋電話會議界面、觸摸屏，以及供智能手機、眼鏡、健康腕帶等可穿戴設備使用的安全功能等等。安全性仍然是黑莓業務中最大的賣點。只要問問索尼影視部門就知道了，在去年感恩節遭受黑客攻擊後，他們“求助”了過時的黑莓才重新啓動了通信設備。Although it looked like the mobile patent wars might cool off after several settlements late in 2014, this year kicked off with a skirmish between Apple and Ericsson over patent royalties related to wireless communications. BlackBerry used to be pretty litigious: It even took on celebrity Ryan Seacrest over its keyboard! But these days it is more focused on trying to convince smartphone buyers that its technology is cool again. Or at least relevant.
儘管隨着2014年末幾項官司塵埃落定，手機專利戰爭似乎已經降溫，但新年伊始，蘋果與愛立信就又在無線通訊的專利費率上爆發衝突。黑莓過去就是一家熱愛訴訟的公司：他們甚至因爲名人瑞安o西克雷斯特設計的手機鍵盤而起訴他。但近些日子以來，公司更多地把工作重心放在了讓智能手機消費者相信他們的技術依舊很棒，或至少很有意義上。Whether or not any sort of BlackBerry-Samsung deal actually happens, the development highlights next wave of innovation (and litigation) in mobile technology: one centered on access control methods and containing corporate breachesin an increasingly mobile world.
無論黑莓和三星聯姻這種事是否發生，時代的發展已經凸顯了移動技術下一波創新（和訴訟）浪潮的所在：在日益移動化的世界中掌握權限控制方法，阻止企業遭到黑客襲擊。（財富中文網）
