Microsoft to make $444 million off Android, says Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs predicts Microsoft will earn $444 million in revenue from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012 (fiscal year 2012) from “cross-license” agreements with Android vendors.

This comes from estimated royalties of $3 to $6 per Android handset. The most publicized deal is with HTC seeing a $5 royalty per device paid to Microsoft, however Microsoft recently signed up Samsung to a similar patent related cross-licensing agreement for their Android-based tablets and smartphones. This prompted claims of extortion from Google, who has long vowed to protect OEMs that deploy Android on their products. Others have signed similar deals with Microsoft.

Yesterday’s announcements from Amazon for their new Kindle lineup have lead to fears that they too might have to cough up a royalty to Microsoft.

The report from BI notes that this is still a drop in the bucket to Microsoft’s overall estimated revenue of $75 billion for fiscal 2012 (even if it is more than revenue from Windows Phone licences):

“So, the money it gets from Android is almost nothing, especially when you consider the incredible damage Android is doing to Microsoft’s dominance as a computing platform.”

(via BusinessInsider)