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To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (1479)1/28/2000 8:55:00 AM
From: Kent Rattey  Respond to of 35685
 
JW,
Could you give me an idea where the bottom is?
Thanks,
Kent



To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (1479)1/28/2000 9:30:00 AM
From: JohnG  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 35685
 
To: Uncle Frank who wrote (16660)
From: JohnG
Friday, Jan 28, 2000 9:28 AM ET
Reply # of 16675

QCOM Strategic Purchase
I think the members of this thread should be sophisticated enough to understand the significance of the QCOM
strategic purchase of Snap Track.
First, why would QCOM spend $1 billion to buy a little privately held 60 employee GPS company called Snap
Track (http://www.snaptrack.com/)up in San Jose. That is $16.66 million per employee and we know that even
the best of engineers con't cost that much. Perhaps then it is the patented intellectual property. I am reminded of
a quote from a famous bank robber of old who, when asked why he robbed banks, said simply that that was
where the money was.

Snap Track offfers QCOM the ability to offer cell phone opperators the opportunity to sell mobile location
specific (possibly interactive advertising) for the first time in human history. Free TV is now the greatest
advertising medium on earth. Everything we watch on TV is paid for by advertisers trying to sell their products.
A little company called Gemstar has us all excited because they will be able to sell advertising over their
programming guide.

Snap track now provides their last generation GPS to no other than NTT DO Co MO in Japan. As you know,
DoCoMo represents a pressure point for CDMA development. DDI and two other cellular companies in Japan
owned mainly by KYO (who just bought the QCOM cell phone mfg facility) and Toyota (a deep pocket
company for sure) are using QCOM's CDMA and have a latest generation CDMA network. Their rival vows to
use W-CDMA provided by NEC and including some NTT intellectual property. But now, NTT will have to
deal with QCOM's suite if CDMA intellectual property which just happens to include all future versions of Snap
Track intellectual property.

Also, the FCC has mandated that all cell phones sold after a certain date will have GPS capability so 911 calls
can be tracked down (and possibly so the privacy of drug dealers can be invaded.

So, what is so special about Snap Track GPS. Those of us who have used GPS know it is line of sight. It
doesn't work inside glass and steel buildings because of signal attinuation or in city concrete canyons because of
attinuatuon and reflection. Well, it turns out that Snap Track's patented CDMA does work in these extreme
situations because it operates well despite signal attinuation and reflections.

So QCOM just bought the only patented, proven GPS that works well where the money is--ie where the
people are--ie in cities and inside large buildings.

Advertising rates are expressed in terms of dollars per hunderd contacted. If advertising can be targeted to
contacts that are more likely to use the product being advertised, then the rates are quite high. If only a small
fraction of the contacts are potential customers, then rates are low. With QCOM's GPS technology, we have
the possibility for the first time ever to target mobile people (the ones litely to spend some money) by location
and by whatever phone number related data base operators are able to accumulate. Thus scuba divers might be
reminded of the sale at the 51st street scuba shop when they are in the area. Local restaurant info can be made
available to cell phone users in the area. Local map info can be made available to cell phone users in the area.
This is very specific and customer useful advertising. As such it should command the highest advertising rates.

Now we see how cell phone operators can make a fortune selling advertising while they continue to sell calling
minutes. All this takes 2.5 or 3G internet data channels and QCOM patented technology. Too bad NTT Do Co
Mo and flat footed AT&T don't have it. But thay do have lots of money to go with their dinasaur characteristics.
They will have two choices:
1) deal with QCOM
2) don't make much money and don't provide user specific free internet info wanted by their customers. Perish
for lack of vision in a fast changing world.

How about free phones with limited free minutes paid for by advertisers and given avay to select customers.
Move over Gemstar. Here comes QCOM.

And what about MOT, NOK and ERICY. Can they survive without this patented QCOM technolgy. They
need to come to mother QCOM to buy their HDR internet user specific advertising enabled ASICS. Come to
mother!! Bring cash. And then you will be able to build the phones that cellular operators demand--the ones that
have a litttle logo that says "Qualcom inside." Thus we have "demand pull" QCOM ASIC sales dictated by the
operators--ie the customers MOT, NOK and ERICY hope to sell phones to.

Now Alex Ceina of SSB can do a 180 after all of Voltaire's "Houses" have a chance to load up on cheap
QCOM stock sold by uninformed investors scared shitless by the recent decline in the QCOM stock price. My
question is, how many of those so called analysts that attended the QCOM conference call have been smart
enough th figure out that I Jacobs was doing their employers a big for when he mentioned that QCOM earnings
would be seasonably flat in Q2. Their employers now have a chance to load up on cheap QCOM stock and sell
it off later.
JohnG