It has been bought by interdealer broker and provider of post trade services ICAP for $10 million.
The deal, which closed yesterday and was announced today, will see ICAP pay Ocean Tomo $5 million in cash and $5 million of restricted ICAP plc stock. The agreement also provides ICAP with a long-term licence to the Ocean Tomo brand.
Ocean Tomo’s vice-chairman, Dean Becker, and nine employees will join ICAP.
Michael Spencer, group CEO at ICAP, said: “Patent brokerage is an exciting new field that will help to provide a marketplace and access to liquidity for an asset that has historically not been served by a vibrant trading market ... The combination of ICAP’s existing successful patent brokerage business and the Ocean Tomo brand will help us build a leadership position in the global patent and intellectual property broking market.”
An Ocean Tomo auction in San Francisco in March saw only six out of 82 lots sold.
Speaking at the FICPI conference in Washington DC last week Ron Laurie of Inflexion Point Strategy blamed the poor results on a changed market, as well as the fact that Intellectual Ventures, a company that he said accounted for 80% of the auction's sales, chose not to participate this year.
"The demand for patents is down and the remaining buyers are much more selective," said Laurie, who claimed that an auction setting could not offer the interaction necessary for negotiating a high-value portfolio.
Additional reporting by Eileen McDermott, New York
