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

To: marginmike who wrote (94704)	2/27/2001 9:46:57 AM
From: waverider	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

I know Mike. The difference now is that I recognize what I fool I was. -ng-

To: marginmike who wrote (94704)	2/27/2001 9:47:47 AM
From: jackmore	Respond to of 152472

Qualcomm fighting fires February 27, 2001 12:00 AM ET by Rex Crum If the events of the past few trading days are any indication, Qualcomm's (QCOM) Irwin Jacobs may need to add "chief firefighter" to his chief executive officer title. In separate meetings today and Wednesday, Jacobs will likely be listening to shareholders' concerns, fielding analysts' questions and doing his best to put out any remaining fires at the company. The latest controversy grew out of comments Jacobs made last week that many took to mean that third-generation (3G) wireless technology will not be up and running as soon as expected. Digging out While Qualcomm took steps to allay concerns over the highly anticipated wireless standards late last week, analysts say that based on market conditions, the company does have a bit of a hole to dig out from. "Given the [economic] climate, it's hard to believe Qualcomm will have a significant positive statement from its meetings," said Keith Bachman, a financial analyst with ABN Amro. "Maybe they'll have some cool product announcements?" At issue is the future of the deployment of 3G wireless technology standards W-CDMA and cdma2000 1x. The new technologies are often touted as the panacea for all things wireless and will lead to full use of the Internet over wireless devices. And Qualcomm holds patent licenses for the use of both standards. "We feel we can have an equal stake in both from technological, royalty and chipset area," said Anil Kripalani, senior vice president of global technology marketing at Qualcomm. "The world is a big enough market for both and will determine which [standard] comes faster." On Feb. 22, Jacobs made a statement suggesting that it would likely be 2004 or 2005 before European mobile-phone operators would deploy "commercially viable" W-CDMA-based wireless services. The next day investment firm Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown lowered its rating on Qualcomm's stock to "buy" from "strong buy." The dreaded downgrade "There are mixed signals floating in the air pertaining to the timing of infrastructure upgrades," wrote Brian Modoff, the Deutsche Banc analyst who lowered Qualcomm's stock rating. Qualcomm's shares fell nearly 20 percent on Friday, the day of the downgrade, before officials moved to refute concerns about the third-generation wireless technology delays. As the markets were about to close, Qualcomm issued a statement claiming that it still sees strong demand for its CDMA integrated circuits and that the company will ship 16 million of the wireless-standard units in the second quarter of this year. Qualcomm also believes the number of circuits shipped will exceed 16 million in the third quarter. Qualcomm officials also said that cdma2000 1x is already in use in South Korea and will be deployed across Japan, North America and South America this year. Those announcements were enough to help Qualcomm get back some of the losses that hammered its shares throughout the day. On Monday, Qualcomm's shares closed down about 2 percent, to $63.06. The stock has lost 64 percent in market value since it hit a 52-week high of $162.56 on March 29, 2000. To say that Qualcomm's experience underscores the importance placed on 3G wireless technologies would be putting it mildly. The wireless industry as a whole, from infrastructure builders such as Nortel Networks (NT), to mobile phone companies such as Nokia (NOK) and Ericsson (ERICY) (which also builds wireless infrastructure), to wireless network providers such as Sprint PCS (PCS), has a stake in the development of 3G technology. Rush to wireless With more people expected to access the Internet with wireless devices than desktop computers in just a matter of years, the rush is on to provide the technology that will bring Net content over the airwaves. The main difference between W-CDMA and cdma 2000 1x is that W-CDMA uses CDMA technology to increase data transmission rates in GSM-based systems, while cdma 2000 1x boosts the transmission capabilities of current CDMA systems. The world has quickly divided into two camps over the wireless standards. CDMA has millions of users in the U.S., South Korea and other parts of Asia. GSM technology has almost become a de facto standard in Europe and a natural area for W-CDMA expansion. Some analysts say Qualcomm's comments regarding delays in the rollout of W-CDMA services will only do harm to the company's relationship with European wireless providers. "Qualcomm is one of these feast-or-famine companies in the industry," said Bryan Prohm of Gartner Group Dataquest. "And I think they are burning bridges along the way in Europe, which is W-CDMA country, by putting up cdma 2000 1x as a white knight." Still, Qualcomm's Kripalani says the company is committed to W-CDMA and its deployment as much as it is to cdma 2000 1x. "We've established that [cdma 2000] 1x technology works," Kripalani said. "We got a later start in the W-CDMA arena, but we are now contributing and there are products that have caught up [to cdma 20001x.]" upside.com