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NEW YORK — Mosaid Technologies Inc., a patent holding company based in Canada, on Wednesday told shareholders to wait for advice from its board before taking action on an increased bid by Wi-LAN Inc. to buy it.
Wi-LAN, another Canadian company that collects and licenses patents, on Wednesday morning raised its unsolicited offer from 38 Canadian dollars per Mosaid share to 42 Canadian dollars.
That values the company at about $525 million.
Mosaid shares rose 1.40 Canadian dollars, or 3.4 percent, to 42.26 Canadian dollars in Toronto trading, indicating that investors believe an even better deal is forthcoming.
Wi-LAN shares fell 11 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $6 in U.S. trading.
Wi-LAN has been pursuing Mosaid since August. Mosaid's board said the previous offer was inadequate.
Both companies focus on the hot area of wireless patents, where values are jumping because of the legal battles between Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and cellphone makers that use Google Inc.'s operating system.
Mosaid recently took over management of 2,000 of former Nokia Corp. patents, and will share licensing revenue from them with Nokia and Microsoft Corp.
