RE:RE:RE:Wilan?Cabbie, from the way you describe the situation, really any of the ongoing cases could, in theory, be "carved out." It could play out like a kind of IP buffet.
It makes sense that Quarterhill would keep the Apple disputes because they're so far along but if someone wanted to take over the action and pay, say, 80% of the "home run" value, then one could imagine Quarterhill letting them take it. It would be the equivalent of settling with Apple (except that someone other than Apple would pay the amount).
Similarly, if a potential buyer of Wilan insisted on valuing the Amazon / Microsoft / Google case(s) at only, say, 5% of its "home run" value then you could see where Quarterhill might want to keep that one. Presumably this is not supposed to be a fire sale.
Of course a bidder does not need to specify how they are valuing each case. But in theory Quarterhill could test the waters by, say, making some counteroffers where they would keep this or that action.
One conclusion that this suggests is that negotiating the sale of an IP NPE business is apt to be pretty darned complicated. It's sort of like you're selling 1 big company but also 1,000 little companies (or assets) at the same time.
I would assume that when Quarterhill lets these patents go they will retain perpetual licenses to all of them. You don't really want to sell a patent and then have the buyer turn around and sue you the next day.