Former handset giant BlackBerry struck a deal to sell remaining patents related to its defunct mobile business to a specialist IP company, in a transaction worth $600 million.

BlackBerry stated the assets relate mostly to mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking, and will be sold to US-based company Catapult IP Innovations assuming the deal gets through regulators.

Any IP related to its active lines of business have been excluded from the deal.

The former device maker will receive $450 million on closing the deal, with the remaining balance being paid in instalments.

Catapult IP Innovations is a company established to buy the assets and is backed by a lending syndicate which includes a Canadian pension fund.

End of an era
The sale of the patents is the latest move towards finally closing the book on BlackBerry’s once hugely successful devices business.

In January 2021, BlackBerry confirmed media reports it had offloaded several of its mobile patents to Huawei. It finally decommissioned support for its last operating system and associated phone software earlier this month.

Since quitting making its own mobile devices in 2016 in favour of a licensing model, BlackBerry has centred its business on enterprise software with a focus on security products.