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

To: GO*QCOM who wrote (41)	7/28/2000 10:30:26 AM
From: Jeff Vayda	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 172

Sell offs to continue? (copy on another Q thread as well) (thanks to phillips telecon - sorry Go for filling your basket) Jeff Vayda Qualcomm To Retain Profitable Haiku Unit Opinion By John Sullivan Last year's market darling, Qualcomm [QCOM] (more), has announced plans to shed yet another of its business units. The CDMA giant's semiconductor and software business will be spun off into a new company, currently referred to by the working title of Spinco. In an age of rampant consolidation, Qualcomm is certainly marching to the beat of a different drummer. First it spun off its worldwide carrier interests -- also using the name Spinco before settling on Leap Wireless International [LWIN] (more). Then it sold its infrastructure business to Ericsson [ERICY] (more) and its handset business to Kyocera [KYO] (more). All this may leave industry watchers wondering just what's going to be left of Qualcomm when they're done selling and spinning off things. Qualcomm has gotten involved in a wide array of sectors, and still has some operations left. However, highly placed company insiders, who for obvious reasons insisted on total anonymity, make it clear that Qualcomm is not through slimming itself down. The company already has gotten rid of most of its core businesses, leaving only an outer ring of poorly connected peripherals. These include things like the Eudora e-mail program, and the Omnitracs fleet management product. If Qualcomm is shedding things like the CDMA infrastructure business, surely its e-mail program is hardly a high priority. So what will be left of Qualcomm when Chairman Irwin Jacobs' vision is complete? An FCC bidding credit redeemable at some future wireless spectrum auction, and Jacobs himself. Now that Jacobs has succeeded in his lifelong ambition to create a significant CDMA presence in the wireless marketplace, sources report he plans to shift his career emphasis to a longstanding ambition, haiku. Jacobs reportedly discovered the Japanese poetic form while championing CDMA. His first effort was composed during a long standards group meeting in 1995, at the peak of the CDMA vs. GSM 'holy war." It perfectly encapsulates the tenor of the CDMA camp at that critical moment in history: Code division good Packets swirling in the wind Time division bad Pleased with his initial effort, Jacobs pursued his new interest in haiku, using the form to capture his thoughts at critical moments during the wireless revolution. Consider, for example, the dark pain of this piece from January, when Qualcomm's high-flying stock price plummeted from its remarkable high at the end of 1999: Bitter New Year's gift Share price falls like winter rain I am really pissed Now, Jacobs plans to make his art the primary focus of Qualcomm's operations, after selling off all other business functions. The slimmed down 21st century Qualcomm will essentially consist of Jacobs, who will assume the title "Creative Director," and a small staff of administrative assistants who will care for Qualcomm's extensive inventory of rice paper, ink grinding stones and "sumi-e" calligraphy brushes. The company will have completed its transition from old-style hardware vendor to a lean, new-economy concern devoted solely to intellectual property, and achievement of the Zen state of "satori," or escape from the 10 fetters to spiritual freedom. As Jacobs wrote in a soon-to-be-released press statement on Qualcomm's reorganization: Many business groups Mundane thoughts weigh down my soul Spin off everything Some industry players remain skeptical however, and Qualcomm may not have the lucrative haiku field to itself for long. Ericsson reports it is working on an improved version, to be called 'tanka". The Swedish telecom giant claims "tanka will be backwards compatible with the 5-7-5 syllable system used by haiku, but will add an additional couplet of two seven-syllable lines, offering customers superior symbolic content and improved thematic richness while offering greater ease of use." With this stark warning shot across Qualcomm's bow, watch for a new wireless holy war to emerge in coming months.