Baron's today interview with Frank Jenney of Oppenheimer.
It's time to pick stocks.
A: I have owned Qualcomm for over three years. When I bought it, people
said their CDMA technology for cellular phones didn't work. We checked
out CDMA, which stands for code division multiple access, and it works. So
well, in fact, that on March 25, Qualcomm settled a longrunning patent
dispute with Ericsson, which wanted to make GSM the global standard and
didn't want to pay large royalties to Qualcomm. Now they and everyone else
will.
CDMA technology has become the world standard for cellular phones. It will
be in all handsets, and in wireless local loops, which are local phone systems
without wirelines. Cellular telephony still has vast potential. Soon e-mail will
be available on cell phones. You'll also be able to surf the Internet on one.
People will want Web appliances in their cars.
Q: What's so good about CDMA?
A: It allows a lot of cell phones to operate in the same place at the same time
without interference. It provides more capacity per cellular system. This is
especially critical in transmitting wireless data.
Q: Qualcomm soared to $155 a share recently, from $87 on March 24,
then eased. How much more is there to go for?
A: Three weeks ago, its market cap was $7 billion, up from $4 billion a few
months ago. Earnings should grow very strongly for many years. Qualcomm in
time could become a big-cap, which I define as $100 billion. It has massive
upside potential. It would be crazy to sell it now.
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