To: masa who wrote (6779 ) 8/5/2004 2:37:34 AM From: slacker711 Respond to of 12247 For years, they have been using "pro forma" accounting, and it hides some bad business decisions they have made. I seriously challenge you to find tech companies that provide a more detailed breakdown of their businesses on the day earnings are released. They provide both a pro-forma and GAAP number and it is VERY easy to figure out where the difference are. TI has gone to a GAAP only number and as a long-time investor in that company, I can tell you that it has made my job as an investor harder. Also, how many companies file the 10Q on the day that earnings are released? You can get a detailed breakdown of cashflows pretty much immediately rather than waiting a couple of weeks like most other companies. Qualcomm isnt perfect, but the data provided to shareholders has improved significantly over the years and is now probably the best among the companies that I follow. Also, I don't know (officially) anything about IPR settlement between TI and Qualcomm, but let's say, I have been involved in some things (the people I talk to are not allowed to tell me), but I have got a feeling that TI is not going to pay ANY royalties to Qualcomm if they sell any CDMA or WCDMA chips (of course it is up to TI to prove that they can do it). I can imagine that, after all, TI invented the IC, and they have lots of IPR in that area. The speculation at the time of the license was that TI received a royalty-free cross-license. This was later confirmed by TI....which was a violation of the non-disclosure agreement. Qualcomm is never going to give confirmation one way or another on this subject. Just another example is GSM. You can see suddenly GSM/GPRS chips in Qualcomm's roadmaps, a lot of them. Do you think Qualcomm is very strong in that area. No. GSM IPR is pretty much owned by companies like Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Siemens. Do you think those companies give it to Qualcomm for free? The same with WCDMA: DoCoMo, NEC, Panasonic, Nokia, Ericsson etc. have IPR there Qualcomm does not own. Do you think Qualcomm gets it for nothing? Well, I am sure that you know Qualcomm's stance. They threatened to spin off their chip making division into a separate company and give them enough CDMA patents for cross-licenses....while the parent patent company would still have enough CDMA patents to collect royalties. Here is what Qualcomm has to say on the subject.edgar-online.com Our CDMA license agreements generally provide cross-licenses to us to use certain of our licensees’ technology to manufacture and sell certain CDMA products (e.g. CDMA application specific integrated circuits or ASICs, subscriber units and/or infrastructure equipment). In most cases, our use of our licensees’ technology is royalty free. However, under some of the licenses, if we incorporate certain of the licensed technology into certain of our products, we are obligated to pay royalties on the sale of such products. So, some licenses are royalty free while they have to pay for some others....so what? If they pay 5% on the sale of every W-CDMA/GSM chipset and collect 5% on the sale of every handset, they are going to make a boatload of money. At a minimum, they are likely to be paying Docomo since they arent a manufacturer. By no means do I think Qualcomm is completely honest. Sometimes they shade the truth to make the company look better (or in the case of the much discussed on-time deliviries, they are flat-out wrong). As I said at the beginning of the post, I would love to hear which tech companies (particularly wireless) provide you with a better information. Slacker