Aus, you raise some very good points. On the type of accounting used, I'll have to check. Usually it is a type called purchase accounting (more conservative), but I'll have to check that, and because of other pressing matters, I don't know when I'll have time to do it.
On the issue of predicting royalties, it's just hard to do, particularly because royalties usually are paid once an article has been sold (as opposed to being manufactured). There can be all sorts of delays or other factors that affect WHEN a royalty bearing sale is reported. I think that companies are better off underestimating these sources, as there is too much uncertainty to make accurate predictions, and too much bad feeling generated if the actual results come in below earlier forecasts.
I do think that the implementation of new SEC rules on what a company can disclose, and the requirement that disclosure be made to the entire investment community instead of to a handful privileged portfolio managers should help all of us get access to timely, reasonably accurate information, and the former monopoly on discreet investment info will now disappear.
On the postponement of the Lexar matter, it sounds to me like the judge wants the parties to try to settle out of court. This would be advantageous to both sides. If SanDisk prevails at a trial, then the judgement against Lexar could be large enough to put the company out of business, making it unlikely that SNDK shareholders would recover anything. If they settle out of court, SNDK gets something, and Lexar probably stays in business, though how much money it can make is an entirely different matter.
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