Here is an interesting perspective on Korea and Royalties. Korean companies have paid $235 million so far to QCOM. Maybe QCOM is causing the financial crisis!! It also looks like the Korean Telcom companies are planning on using their low exchange rate to swamp the world with CDMA phones. Question is, when Korean company sells a phone in Korea -does Qcom get 6% of the price in won, but when they sell the same phone in US, does QCOM get 6% of the price in dollars?
Just wondering.
Korean Cell Phone Makers Work on Exports
Comline, Tuesday, December 09, 1997 at 16:59
The big four South Korean communications equipment makers--
Samsung Electronics, LG Information Communications, Hyundai
Electronics and Maxon Electronics--are going all out to make
their nation the world leader in CDMA digital wireless
communication systems. The makers are confident that they can be
the first to put the narrow-band CDMA technology into digital
cellular phones, to meet growing demand at home and abroad. Once,
South Korea more or less depended upon US and European companies
for the configuration of cellular networks, but the nation now
aims to turn the tables with the "Made in Korea" stamp on
cellular equipment sold worldwide. Based on a government
decision, the four makers decided to acquire licensing technology
from Qualcom, of the US, which developed the CDMA format.
According to a survey of the industry, the four companies paid a
total of $235 million to Qualcom, as of October 1997, in
licensing fees and sales royalties for 1997. |
