MMI, ALU Patent Value Evident Post Nortel, Says Morgan Keegan
By Tiernan Ray
* July 1, 2011, 5:37 PM ET
blogs.barrons.com
Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt writes that a deal today by Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and others to collectively pay $4.5 billion for 6,000 Nortel Networks patents could highlights the “hidden value” of telecom patents held by Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) and Motorola Mobility (MMI).
Alcatel holds 27,600 active patents, and Moto has 24,000, some of those in mobile, some in cable television technology, he observes.
Motorola shares could “easily be worth $23.50 in a liquidation, assuming a substantial discounted value to its IP relative to Nortel,” writes McCourt. Moreover, he still believes “upside to the shares could be very substantial with a sustained return to profitability,” he writes.
Alcatel’s patent portfolio is probably worth $20 billion, he calculates, if every patent were to receive roughly equal value, which would be more than the market cap of $13.6 billion at present. On a sum-of-the-parts basis, McCourt writes, even without an “explicit value” for the patents, ALU shares should be worth $9.54. The stock currently fetches $5.88.
Alcatel shares rose 11 cents, or almost 2% today. MMI shares rose $1.44, or 6.5%, to $23.48.
Nortel shares traded in the pink sheets rose 2 cents to 7 cents a share. |
