Hangdog: It is not worth anywhere near $500M - unless you are talking about straight goodwill. If you want to understand the market value of patent portfolios, spend some time reading about the Ocean Tomo auctions. These types of auctions are great way to dispose of portfolio's quickly and at the best price.
Since the beginning of the recession, we have seen a marked decrease in patents with reductions in applications, acquisitions, and acquisition prices.
It would be reasonable to hope for $300,000 for the patents in today's marketplace.
What is probably worth significantly more is key clients and partnerships - essentially the infrastructure to get into the marketplace rapidly. That suggests the best offer would come from a new market entrant.