Aereo assets go up for sale

Failed cloud TV service Aereo has reportedly put its intellectual property and hardware up for sale at a bankruptcy auction this week. 

According to a Bloomberg report, Aereo has predicted that its assets could fetch from US$4 million (€3.5 million) to US$31.2 million, which will be used to pay back creditors.

The firm is reportedly looking to sell one approved patent and 17 pending patents relating to its blocked cloud TV service, as well as its disk space, server racks, electronics and office items.

Speaking to Albert Fried & Co analyst Richard Tullo tipped Dish Network, Verizon Communications and Apple as major firms that may be interested in Aereo’s IP.

Aereo filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November, citing the regulatory and legal challenges to the company that “have proven too difficult to overcome.”

In a blog post at the time, Aereo said that it has appointed Lawton Bloom of Argus to serve as Aereo’s chief restructuring officer and claimed that Chapter 11 proceedings would allow the firm to “maximise the value of its business and assets without the extensive cost and distraction of defending drawn out litigation in several courts.”

In June last year, the US Supreme Court ruled by a majority of six to three that Aereo’s strategy of charging customers a monthly fee for retransmitted streams of US broadcast channels violated copyright and was illegal.