I guess this makes me a pedant, but it bothers me to see big O notation used as a shortcut for "within an order of magnitude." It would probably be fine if everyone on HN had taken an algorithms class and knew the formal definition. In reality, a lot of people here are still learning what that capital O thing means, and if they see it used as "within an order of magnitude" we're doing them a disservice. (As someone who wormed their way into the field without a CS degree, I had to learn it on the job, so maybe it matters more to me than it should.)
The point you were making, however, is well taken. There's just no way for us to know what patent-related assets are involved in a deal like this.
Yeah, O(1) or O(1B) is the same. However, 1B is o(0.01 * (age of the company)), even though the sun will have exploded before a company who's revenue is 1 cents * its age reach 1B.
The point you were making, however, is well taken. There's just no way for us to know what patent-related assets are involved in a deal like this.