>> By the way, speaking of vision, Unc.........
What's your vision for Qualcomm over the next 2-7 years. Specifically, how do you add everything up?
Sorry for the delay in responding, Apollo, but I needed some time to organize my thoughts about qcom.
In rare cases, it's possible for an enterprise to have excellent products, a sustainable competitive advantage, and not deliver correspondingly good returns to their investors. Tandem Computers is an example, and I'm afraid I'm beginning to see qcom in this light. Dr. J's expectations for cdma have been accurate, the royalty stream is sturdy and seems assured of a long run, and market share and gross margins for chips are beyond expectations. But the rub is cash flow, which is repeatedly hammered by investment losses. I find it hard to see much value in pro forma reports, as it's apparent that "seeding" is an integral part of qcom's corporate philosophy. Mr. Market must agree, because Q has underperformed the Nasdaq over the last one and two year periods.
I imagine qcom will change it's primary focus from promoting technology to ROI at some point over the 2-7 year period you specified, but it probably won't be until Dr. J retires.
uf |
