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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ed Forrest who wrote (67870)	2/24/2000 3:25:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

<Barbara Burgess, a spokeswoman for Lucent Technologies Inc., the world's largest phone-equipment maker, said the delay is still a ''rumor'' and the company is ''proceeding with business as usual.'' > Qualcomm Falls After Report China Delays CDMA Network (Update1) By Justin Baer Qualcomm Falls After Report China Delays CDMA Network (Update1) (Adds details, analyst comment. Updates share price.) San Diego, Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Qualcomm Inc. shares fell as much as 12 percent after a report said China delayed plans to build a digital mobile phone network using the company's technology. Qualcomm fell 9 7/8 to 137 in midafternoon trading of 19.3 million shares. Earlier, the shares touched 129 33/64. The Asian Wall Street Journal reported that China indefinitely postponed plans to build the network using Qualcomm's code division-multiple access technology on ''political'' grounds. Qualcomm had been counting on China to boost revenue and profit. Chief Executive Irwin Jacobs signed a licensing agreement last week with China Unicom, the nation's No. 2 phone company. He said last Thursday that China Unicom wants to have the network capacity for 10 million users by year's end. ''It's a temporary setback,'' said David Powers, an Edward Jones analyst who rates Qualcomm a ''hold.'' ''It's one of the risks of doing business in an emerging market.'' Ake Persson, president of Ericsson AB's CDMA business, said China Unicom postponed discussions with his company. Ericsson is bidding to supply CDMA-based networking equipment to China Unicom. ''Things aren't as smooth in China as we normally are used to in the rest of the world,'' Persson said. Ericsson's American depositary receipts rose 1 to 92 7/8. A 'Rumor' Qualcomm spokeswoman Christine Trimble said today that the San Diego-based company hasn't received any notification from Chinese officials that plans to build the network have been delayed or canceled. She couldn't immediately confirm comments made in the Journal by Leo Zhang, Qualcomm's general manager of China operations, that he canceled a trip to the company's San Diego headquarters after hearing of the delay. ''We're continuing to work with Chinese operators, manufacturers and the government,'' Trimble said. ''We still believe China is committed to CDMA.'' Barbara Burgess, a spokeswoman for Lucent Technologies Inc., the world's largest phone-equipment maker, said the delay is still a ''rumor'' and the company is ''proceeding with business as usual.'' In late 1999, Lucent bid to supply China Unicom with CDMA- based wireless network equipment, software and services. Talks between the two companies continue, Burgess said. ''Right now, it's very much a back-and-forth, question-and- answer process,'' she said. Qualcomm's Jacobs said yesterday that he hopes the agreement with China Unicom is final. ''You can never tell in China,'' Jacobs said at the Roth Capital Partners investment conference in Dana Point, California. ''We still need to sign individual agreements'' with Chinese phone manufacturers. Challenge to GSM Qualcomm's CDMA is the fastest-growing cellular standard. The company is challenging the rival global system for mobile communications, or GSM, technology that's used in both China and Europe. China's number of cellular-phone users is forecast to increase 63 percent this year to 70 million. Qualcomm President Richard Sulpizio said last week that 130 million users are expected in 2003. ''On the one hand, they have certain goals they would like to accomplish unrelated to technology,'' said Edward Jones analyst Powers. ''At the same time, they don't want to fall behind other countries in deploying the latest technology.'' According to the framework agreement, Chinese manufacturers that sign up with Qualcomm to use its technology must first obtain licenses from the Chinese government to produce CDMA equipment. Qualcomm has pledged to sell its digital phone chips at preferential prices to Chinese manufacturers that enter into licensing deals under the agreement. The company will also look into the possibility of localizing chip manufacturing in China.