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Technology Stocks : IFMX - Investment Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Fred Levine who wrote (13904)	2/8/2000 5:32:00 PM
From: Tony S.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14631

Whatever the motives or merits of IBM's suit, I think the market will probably be slow to view it as business as usual with regard to Informix stock, considering Informix's recent history of legal troubles. An action like this can take years to resolve unless both sides can come to some sort of cross-licensing agreement, but that outcome seems unlikely in light of IBM's stated motive: namely, to send a message to the industry. So the question I'm asking myself is, what's the likely impact on the stock price while this matter remains unresolved? In the case of the Erikson/Qualcomm dispute (another recent instance of a large tech company suing a much smaller one on basic patent issues) Qualcomm stock remained stuck in a fairly narrow trading range throughout the course of the suit. There are obvious differences in the two situations; Informix doesn't stand to benefit as much from a favorable ruling as Qualcomm did. Still, I wonder if we might now be in for a "compressing spring" situation in which the value of Informix as a company rises much faster than the stock price in the near term, since analysts will be forced to at least consider a worst case scenario.