Microsoft buys Netscape

AOL said that as part of the deal, it was selling "stock of an AOL subsidiary" at a loss in order to reduce its tax bill. AOL didn't reveal the name of the subsidiary, but sources have confirmed that it is in fact Netscape.

Microsoft will acquire all the patents surrounding the Netscape browser, while AOL will still own the actual brand. That extends to the Netscape business, which was once an ISP, as well as the URL for the brand.

I assume that this means that ValueClick will now be suing Microsoft over the cookie patent instead of AOL, if that's still going on.

There are no winners here.

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