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Technology Stocks : Gemstar Intl (GMST) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tinkershaw who wrote (5926)	5/17/2002 1:27:14 PM
From: Mike Buckley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6516

Tinker, Henry in the past has been more lawyerly in litigation and more prone to digging in for the treble damages and coerce compliance. You're point about using litigation to coerce compliance is valid but we really don't know what those on the other side of the table are doing in the process. It's very likely that he has no reasonable alternative. Notice that rather than suing AOL/Time Warner he is working on an expanded agreement. In the last two years (maybe 3 at the most) he has settled with Motorola, TV Guide and Thomson rather than allow the court to make the determination. In all three cases the result has been a long-term partnership agreement. Of all the suits Gemstar has filed in the last four years (General Instrument, Scientific Atlanta, Echo Star, SCI Systems, Tivo and Pioneer) only one part (the analog portion) of the General Instrument case was resolved by the arbitrator. The other part was resolved by a partnership agreement with Motorola who has bought General Instrument. Nothing else has gone full circle. My point is that maybe the need for litigation has more to do with those six companies' short-sighted approach. Perhaps they, not just Gemstar, would have been better off following the lead of Microsoft, AOL, AT&T, and over 100 MSOs that have happily agreed to licensing Gemstar's technology. --Mike Buckley