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To: im a survivor who wrote (20595)	5/27/2000 7:41:00 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35685

Finance - News Asian Markets Saturday, May 27 3:04 AM SGT Qualcomm Continues Descent On Asian Market Worries >QCOM NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Shares of Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM), one of the most battered issues on the S&P 500, slid for an eighth consecutive day Friday on continued concerns about business in China. The stock of the San-Diego based company recently traded down 5.1%, or 3 1/2, to 65 1/2, on volume of 23.6 million shares compared with the daily average of 17.4 million. The wireless-communications technology company once again fell victim to the Asian virus that has plagued it for the last week. Earlier this week, South Korean officials ruled that Korean wireless-service providers must end their support prices of wireless phones, which would add about $177 to the price tag of each mobile phone bought in the country. Korea accounts for roughly 21% of worldwide CDMA handsets sold, Qualcomm officials said. CDMA, which stands for code division multiple access, is competing to be the worldwide standard in digital wireless technology. And on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported China's second-largest wireless-service provider, China Unicom, appears unlikely to deploy a CDMA-based network, as it had previously agreed to do. However, that contention is still much disputed by Qualcomm officials and analysts covering the company. "I still think (China Unicom) will deploy a CDMA network," said Mark Roberts, telecommunications-equipment analyst with First Union Securities Inc. "They don't have enough spectrum to compete against (market leader) China Telecom." Roberts said "credible" analysts never built penetration of the Chinese market into their economic models of Qualcomm. Roberts also said Korean worries are over-emphasized. He said officials at Samsung Corp. (Q.SSG), one of the largest makers of CDMA handsets, said any downturn in the Korean market would only allow them to sell more units into other markets like Brazil and North America. "(Samsung) feels they are capacity-constrained everywhere," Roberts said. "They told us they expect this to have no effect." At close of trading Thursday, Qualcomm had slipped almost 61% from its year-end price in 1999. That is the sixth-greatest decline among stocks making up the Standard & Poor's 500. Some Analysts See Qualcomm In China The Korean press has reported an unprecedented run in new customer additions before the government-ordered June deadline to end handset subsidies. According to the Korea Economic Daily, wireless service providers were seeing twice as many new customers as usual following the news. South Korea is one of the world's largest markets for CDMA users. Roberts said the Ministry of Information and Communication has issued edicts in the past to keep South Korean service providers from subsidizing the costs of handsets but has not made the rules stick. Perhaps responding to the stock's tumble, Qualcomm Chief Executive Irwin Jacobs issued a statement praising approval by Congress of Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with China. "PNTR is particularly beneficial to Qualcomm, reducing the prior uncertainty of Chinese government support for a major increase in the use of (CDMA) by China Unicom and possibly others," Jacobs' statement said. Alex Cena, telecommunications equipment analyst with Salomon Smith Barney, said China Unicom will likely build out one network using a competing technology in the 900 Megahertz radio spectrum. However, he said the company will likely also build a CDMA-based wireless network in the 800 Megahertz range. "Everybody assumes it is a choice of one technology over the other," Cena said. "It's not black and white." Matt Hoffman, analyst with Wit SoundView, said that at a recent Friday afternoon price of 63 1/4 - down 8.3%, or 5 3/4 - Qualcomm shares seem to be a bargain. Qualcomm hit a 52-week high of 200 in January. "I think we're approaching the bottom of the stock here," he said. "Even with the news out of Korea and China, there's really nothing that's happened to change the fundamentals." -Johnathan Burns; Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2020; johnathan.burns@dowjones.com asia.biz.yahoo.com