patent #8,321,269 awarded thursday to inuvo worth $4/share
inuvo just received a patent that might be worth 10x the value of the entire company. the technology and in process patent application were acquired in 2006 for $32 million. It patents a process that was designed for detecting fraud in search and affiliate networks. the company has used it for a small ad network, but the money use of it is by the affiliate networks where every big player is using components of it in some aspects of the patented process including valueclick, rakuten and the one who seems to be the biggest infringer who is none other than microsoft. a customized version of this technology was created for msft soon after inuvo acquired the technology. it seems that msft took it and tweaked it a little and then just quit paying inuvo for it. the money the owner of this can make if they enforce it could be in the hundreds of millions over time. If you just look at valueclicks commission junction merchants, that includes almost every major retailer, discounter, deal a day seller and the only big ones it doesnt have are in the rakuten program. that means that you could see the owner of this patent getting some fraction of a percentage of nearly every affiliate transaction going forward and that would be worth hundreds of millions if not billions of $$. inuvo calls it valid click and even though its got a patent now they probably cant afford to enforce it. vclk could buy the whole company for 3x the trading price and it would be cheaper than paying 1% of its affiliate revenue the next few years. rumors flying that vrng is already looking at it and they will pay more. they have the guns and backing to enfore the patent, they are already about to rock msft's world on the search side and they see ecommerce transactions as the third leg of the stool (search, mobile, ecommerce). this patent was awarded last week and since inuvo has been real quiet about it, probably out jet shopping. people close to this company say management probably will not sell the whole company because they would be out of a job, more likely they will figure out the way that they can make the most money from this. either way, bet the stock pops like a rocket when the word gets out or management feels like they have reached the limit of when their fiduciary duties will require them to announce it.
if it was worth $32 million with a pending patent, what is it worth with a valid enforceable patent? Maybe $100m or more which is more than $4 a share for this company thats trading at $1.15. dude posted earlier this stock to $5 or $10 in a few months might be in a few days instead, once everyone finds out about this
