Techcrunch is reporting this afternoon that Microsoft is negotiating to buy “the secretive Osterhout Design Group” for about $200 million. Osterhout’s a military contractor that does a lot of work on stuff like heads-up displays.
The Techcrunch piece has some drawings from Osterhout patents. Very Terminator looking.
It’s not clear how many people or what technologies/patents would be included in the deal, which is still be pounded out. But it’s pretty clear that Microsoft doesn’t want to be on the sidelines of the wearables market, while Google, Apple, Samsung and (even worse) some unknown company no one’s ever heard of could own the whole deal.