Amazon.com

In its second-biggest acquisition, Amazon.com announced on March 19, 2012 that it would buy Kiva Systems for $775 million. Kiva started applying for patent protection a year before the company was founded (maybe Facebook should take note). If “proprietary” expectations in the form of patents were part of the premium paid by Amazon.com, the accounting for this acquisition will be interesting to see. Unfortunately, 75% of Kiva’s U.S. patents appear to be commercially impaired.