Bonum Certa Men Certa

RPX, RIP

RPXSummary: Months after RPX executives left and even Microsoft canceled its membership the company as a whole gets sold to a private equity firm

THE patents-hoarding pool known as RPX is dangerous not only because it deals with USPTO-granted patents (i.e. many software patents) but also because months ago it was rumoured it would be sold to a patent troll, Erich Spangenberg. Like Red Hat, which pursues software patents while providing nonaggression assurances, there's no way to guarantee/enforce such pledges upon buyout/takeover.



The patent trolls' lobby (IAM) has reported on the buyout of RPX. The article is composed by their most ferocious proponent of trolls and software patents, with help from IAM's editor (see note at the bottom) and the buyer is called HGGC, an entity which Wikipedia describes as "a middle-market private equity firm based in Palo Alto, California, with over $4.25 billion of cumulative capital commitments". From IAM:

RPX is set to be sold to private equity outfit HGGC in an all-cash deal that values the defensive aggregator at $555 million. The acquisition - at $10.50 a share - was announced this morning and brings to an end months of speculation about the firm's future.

HGGC is based in Palo Alto and, according to its website, currently has $4.3 billion in cumulative capital commitments. One of its co-founders is American football Hall of Famer Steve Young. Although it has a substantial portfolio of tech businesses, RPX appears to be its first investment in a standalone patent business.

[...]

That would seem to suggest that HGGC is committed to the RPX’s core offering including Inventus, the e-discovery platform which the defensive patent player bought back in 2015 for $232 million, but had been looking to sell.

While $555 million is lower than RPX's investors might have been hoping for, an all cash deal at a time of continued uncertainty in the patent market might well mean that they take the money and run. It will then be up to the senior managers who remain to work out with HGGC what to do with the firm. Given the current flux in the patent market, this could be easier said than done.


The CEO will be former Bain Capital executive Gregory M. Benson and this is their corresponding press release. It's probably too early to tell what's about to happen to RPX. The sure thing is, RPX lost much of its leadership and in case of liquidation there's a huge threat that vultures will come preying. So watch this space.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
 
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October