Here's a handset sale article from AOL News:
Qualcomm Garners US, Foreign Interest in Phone-Making Unit
Geneva, Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Qualcomm Inc., developer of the world's second-most-popular wireless technology, said U.S. and foreign companies have expressed an interest in buying its phone-making unit.
San Diego-based Qualcomm is talking to ``a number' of companies, Chairman and Chief Executive Irwin Jacobs said in an interview at Telecom '99 in Geneva. Interested parties include U.S. mobile-phone makers, foreign phone makers eager to gain or strengthen a U.S. presence using Qualcomm's technology, and companies that don't currently make mobile handsets, he said.
``There is significant interest in each area,' Irwin said.
The company announced plans to sell the unit last month after a drop in handset prices and parts shortages made it difficult for Qualcomm to compete with Nokia Oyj, Motorola Inc. and Ericsson AB, the biggest cell-phone makers. Qualcomm hopes to reach a sale agreement by year's end.
Irwin said Qualcomm would be willing to sell the unit to a company that doesn't already make mobile handsets, but operates in a slightly different field with large-scale, low-cost production, and a low-cost source of components.
Qualcomm would also be willing to let such a company use the Qualcomm brand name for the phones, he said.
Once the unit is sold, Qualcomm will generate revenue mainly from its chip business and royalties from other phone makers that license its code-division multiple access, or CDMA, technology.
The company is getting more from royalties as CDMA technology gains in popularity. The company originally began making handsets to help market its technology, which competes with two other standards known as TDMA and GSM, the standard widely used in Europe.
The unit could fetch between $800 million and $1.5 billion, depending on what CDMA royalties the purchaser would have to pay, according to some analysts.
Oct/13/1999 12:05 |
