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Technology Stocks : Interdigital Communication(IDCC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: D.J.Smyth who wrote (3760)2/5/2000 6:17:00 PM
From: Gus  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 5195
 
Darrell,

Several interesting developments from the GSM Congress:

1) Blue chip management. The logical question to ask is what the IPR situation looks like for the TDMA and CDMA components.

tropian.com

An RF transmitter platform that ultimately will integrate GSM, TDMA, CDMA, UMTS and more into a single handset is being premiered at Cannes by Silicon Valley-headquartered Tropian. The solution will enable vendors to offer a true multimode platform for handsets and base stations.
gsmnewsreel.com

2) Motorola

$1.5 Billion (over 3 years) GSM contract in Turkey
siliconinvestor.com

While in an entirely different wireless category altogether, this Digital Modular Radio provide perhaps a glimpse into Motorola's product development work in 2g, 3g, and 4g especially since NTT DoCoMo is also starting to think aloud about 4g.

Because it is fully software reprogrammable, radio operators "point and click" through an interface that is similar to a commercial PC to set up and change characteristics such as bandwidth, modulation, error control, security and waveforms. Motorola's innovative design enables sailors to change radio characteristics in battle or remotely.

There's that "signal waveform" term again. Those who were paying attention to Jim knows that Motorola was recently successful in throwing out 3 out of the 49 claims in one Qualcomm patent. One of those claims had to do with "signal waveform." 7 Qualcomm patents left to go in South Korea for Motorola with a major trial in the USA involving 10 utility patents. ERICY was smart enough to figure out that

Digital Modular Radio to Revolutionize Naval Wireless Communications
siliconinvestor.com

3) Comic relief.

Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG, canceled plans to meet with reporters and GSM representatives in Cannes in order to focus his lobbying efforts on Asia; where cdmaOne backer Qualcomm scored a coup in licensing its intellectual property to China Unicom, China's second-largest state-owned telecoms company. LaForge had been expected to brief reporters on a variety of issues; including the CDG's frustration at being denied membership in 3GPP and the CDG's initiaitiaves regarding CDMA-GSM roaming

The great CDMA no-show
Big news resulted in no news this week for the CDMA Development Group (CDG).
gsmnewsreel.com

4) Lucent's 3g Preview. LU's BLAST antenna technology looks very promising.

lucent.com

As Tero so wickedly put it on the Nokia thread, God gave the garden slug enough common sense to figure out that the sunk costs of TDMA/GSM alone will attract the superior R&D, product engineering and marketing resources from all corners of the globe to create all kinds of highly competitive and superior value propositions for wireless operators during the transition from 2g to 3g.

That is good for a small debt-free US company like IDC which has TDMA and CDMA patents.



To: D.J.Smyth who wrote (3760)2/6/2000 4:04:00 PM
From: Manx  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 5195
 
FROM RB: By: telcom_guru
Reply To: 49975 by continuum
Sunday, 6 Feb 2000 at 1:56 PM EST
Post # of 50020

More on Press Releases.

IDC has provided worthy press releases, each of which has positively
affected the perceived value of the company. See
interdigital.com for a recent list. When there is
something to say, it is said. There is much that cannot be said. A
constant barrage of press releases with no new valid news could put
IDC's investors at risk.

1. It is highly probable, and the Company has indicated, that IDC's
confidentiality agreements with its partners restrict IDC from releasing
information regarding what it is doing for or with each.

See message 47252
ragingbull.com
re IDC and AT&T deal. The wisdom behind saying little is also
exemplified in this article.

Secrecy is imperative to manufacturers until they are ready to hit the
market with their latest product. The hope of all mfrs. is to beat its
competitors to market with a product built on an idea they believe and
hope will win and one of which their competitors had not thought. IDC's
partners are all operating in a highly competitive market.

2. Manufacturers of finished products simply do not waste their time
talking (in words or print) about all the contributors of the parts of their
products. There would be no room to talk about their own products and
achievements.

Look on your mother board, open up a phone or radio and etc.. You'll find
lots of names on the various parts inside, and you can't even see all the
IPRs used to comprise the finished product. The companies that do the
touting are the parts makers. (Intel & BASF are the "parts" makers that
tout the best.) IDC is a part of, not the whole, finished product. IDC and its
investors are probably the ONLY ones who think IDC's part is of utmost
importance.

3. IDC is in the midst of litigation being handled by extremely competent
attorneys, who have certainly advised IDC to say as little as possible. A
simple utterance can be twisted and turned by the opposition into its own
ammunition. Therefore, the less said or printed, the less potential bait for
ERICY's attorneys to use and misconstrue.

Many companies just don't know what may or may not be said, hence,
nothing is assumed to be the best choice. Quiet periods are a perfect
example of this.

4. A continuous stream of press releases that provide no new news can
ultimately have disastrous effects.

If the stock soars as a result, and then sinks for whatever reason, the co.
could ultimately have a more difficult time climbing up again. It could also
be hit with class action suits provided by law firms that thrive on such
suits (if they can find anything to misconstrue into having mislead
investors.)

Such empty press releases can more easily be construed as hype and/or
present an appearance of desperation, or it could provide fuel to
journalists who might question in print the possibility of hype vs.
substance. These could lead investors to sell or wait even longer to buy.

A stock whose price appears to have risen too quickly from hype can fall
quickly by the same amount for any reason. (We are there and doing
that.) Any number of occurrences in the market or in the world, in a day,
cause stock prices to plummet. Typically the market sells first, and ask
questions later. The perceived value of IDC grew to the high 20's as a
result of the release in Nov. of news of value, which was finally seen and
interpreted as such by more than its core investors. (We'd known for
many weeks that the patents had been revalidated.) It then spurted to 80+
on hype, hope and the coattails of the market in December. It has settled
back (as have most all the tech stocks) into the 20's in January.

The company releases news when it believes (see note to Continuum
below) it has news of value to release that it may release. Rather than
hope for more press releases, hope for more good news that can be
released! If nothing comes before, in just 4 more days we will have news.
Pray that it is good! Press releases to pump up the price of the stock is
not building value in the stock. True value takes time to build, and more
time to be recognized and rewarded.

Continuum, your point below is one that seems to be valid and a good
idea. So, why don't you call the Company and ask Rip about it? The
Company is not closed to good ideas. As QCOM has brought to brighter
light the importance of IPRs in this industry, (and for many other good
reasons) this is a good time for IDC to follow through with your
suggestion. I'd be interested in knowing Rip's response.

"2. IDC has been awarded more than a dozen new patents in 99. Why is
this announced with just a NUMBER at year end? What are the patents
anyway? Why not make a release AT LEAST for the more significant
ones AS THEY'RE AWARDED? It may not be a common practice for all
companies. But then again, IDC's patent-based business model is unlike
most others."

tg