SGTL Trade Status, News and Update -
Interesting week so far for the Charlie Brown of my portfolio. First thing Tuesday morning, ACTS issued the much anticipated PR regarding the Patent Infringement case, which was followed shortly by one from SGTL. After reading the favorable ruling, I purchased more at ~$10.34 b/c I believe that this decision is huge...and I watched it go up as high as $10.87, but came crashing down in the afternoon to close in the red! BTW, to me what was really funny was that an analyst from WRHambrecht actually issued a report last week stating that he anticipated a victory for ACTS. What was that guy thinking? After Techsplosion signed a licensing deal with SGTL, it seemed a foregone conclusion that SGTL would win.
Here's the PR:
Ruling Issued in SigmaTel International Trade Commission Case
Tuesday March 21, 9:34 am ET
SigmaTel Patents Upheld
Judge Recommends Exclusion Order
AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 2006--SigmaTel, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGTL - News), a leader in mixed-signal multimedia semiconductors, today announced that an International Trade Commission (ITC) Administrative Law Judge determined that Actions Semiconductor Co., Ltd. infringed two SigmaTel patents and recommended the full ITC issue an exclusion order.
The Honorable Paul J. Luckern, the Administrative Law Judge presiding over the hearing, determined that the two patents asserted by SigmaTel at the final ITC hearing were valid and infringed. The judge also recommended that an exclusion order be issued which prevents the importation of infringing Actions chips and certain MP3 players which contain these chips. During the case, Actions had contended that it did not infringe SigmaTel's patents and that they were invalid.
"SigmaTel is ecstatic about the ITC's ruling in our case against Actions Semiconductor," said Ron Edgerton, chairman and CEO of SigmaTel. "We are proud of our patent portfolio and, with the addition of the original Moon-Hwang MP3 patents, are confident that we will have an even stronger case against IP infringement worldwide."
"With additional SigmaTel patents issuing on a regular basis, we believe it is virtually impossible for our competitors to design around SigmaTel patents and still be successful in the marketplace," Edgerton added. "We intend to protect our customers' investments in SigmaTel-based products and feel obligated to seek the ultimate legal protection achievable based on our US, European and Asian patents which apply to semiconductor competitors, player manufacturer and/or retailers. This ruling gives SigmaTel a significant legal victory and shows that SigmaTel's stated IP goals were achieved."
Specifically, the judge concluded that SigmaTel's 6,633,187 and 6,366,522 patents were valid and infringed. The ruling also included a recommendation that the ITC issue an order barring any MP3 players based on infringing Actions chips which contain two gigabytes or less of flash memory from being imported into the United States. The judge's determination and recommendation will now be reviewed by the full ITC. At this time, the ITC has only released a summary portion of the judge's determination. A public version of the full determination will be made available on SigmaTel's web site (http://www.sigmatel.com) as soon as it is released by the ITC.
SigmaTel's continued success is based in large part on protecting its intellectual property and innovating new technologies. SigmaTel protects its innovations by filing numerous patent applications and has added intellectual property via recent acquisitions, complementing its internally developed intellectual property holdings. SigmaTel has 55 issued patents and another 148 pending applications in the US Patent office. The company also has 17 patents in the European Union and 11 patents in the Asia Pacific region. Please visit sigmatel.com, for specific patent information.
Then, after that great news from yesterday came today's blindsided hit - for whatever reason, and I suspect that Jeffries wanted to squelch any upside momentum that SGTL otherwise would have had, Jeffries cut its target to $9.50 saying 1stQ was not tracking well. The latter was a read head scratcher inasmuch as SGTL already warned about Q1 and Q2. So, the stock gets a downgrade and what happens, well, the stock went down initially, but then rallied up into the close of the day. I am thinking that SGTL may have been pissed enuf to have bought back shares today. Anyway, here's the second snippet:
Here's the Jeffries blurb:
08:27 SGTL SigmaTel tgt cut to $9.50 from $11 at Jefferies (10.28 )Jefferies cuts their tgt on SGTL to $9.50 from $11 saying that based upon checks within the MP3 supply chain, they believe that the co is experiencing weakness in Q1 as MP3 production is being held back due to declining NAND pricing.
and a Yahooligan posted this follow-up: "Wow - they took 2006 estimates to 236mm rev and -.33eps vs street view of 293mm and +.23. Normally, analysts warrant little attention, but they have a pretty good ecord on this one"
Responding To Message #197 from Rutgers at 3/7/2006 9:37:22 AM
SGTL news and a comment -
SigmaTel and Infineon Bring Enhanced Connectivity to Portable Media Players
Tuesday March 7, 9:00 am ET
Companies Will Jointly Develop Bluetooth Solutions Optimized for Digital Multimedia Devices
AUSTIN, Texas & MUNICH, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 7, 2006--SigmaTel, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGTL - News), a leader in mixed-signal multimedia semiconductors, and Infineon Technologies AG (FSE/NYSE: IFX), a leading communication semiconductor company, today announced that they have entered into an agreement to offer Bluetooth® solutions for portable digital multimedia devices. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will jointly develop a Bluetooth chip that is optimized for use in digital multimedia devices based on SigmaTel's portable multimedia System on Chip (SoC) solutions. The new chip will make use of SigmaTel's optimized radio architecture and Infineon's expertise in Bluetooth technology, chip design, CMOS process technology, and manufacturing know-how. SigmaTel and Infineon believe this solution will enable widespread adoption of Bluetooth technology in even the most cost sensitive, power and space constrained applications, such as MP3 players or stereo headsets. The new chip will be exclusively marketed by SigmaTel.
...
Prior to the availability of the new optimized Bluetooth solution, SigmaTel will begin offering Infineon's BlueMoon UniCellular (PMB8753) Bluetooth 2.0 solution featuring Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) functionality as part of its STMP3600 MP3 player Reference Design Kits (RDKs). The reference design will provide a turnkey system, including the Bluetooth upper stack software and relevant Bluetooth profiles. The design will also be BQB certified and UnplugFest tested, reducing customer development costs and time to market. SigmaTel's customers can expect a smooth transition from the PMB8753 to the optimized SigmaTel Bluetooth solution.
The addition of Bluetooth to SigmaTel solutions will allow MP3 and portable multimedia device manufacturers to provide seamless interoperability with the rapidly expanding universe of Bluetooth-enabled products, including stereo headsets, headphones, cellular handsets, and car audio systems. New and compelling usage scenarios include:
Wireless streaming of high-quality digital audio from a portable player to a car stereo, including control of the portable player from the car stereo's built-in user interface. No cables, adapters, or custom installations are required.
Sharing of one wireless headset between a portable player and a cell phone, allowing the user to effortlessly switch between phone calls and music playback.
Using wireless headphones for sports or other activities, eliminating the dangling wire, and allowing for convenient control of the portable player directly from the headphone.
SigmaTel's portable multimedia SoC solutions provide high quality audio playback for portable devices such as MP3 players, language learners, and jukeboxes. The company's solutions offer market-leading benefits, including as much as a 30 percent lower bill of materials cost, Hi-Speed USB 2.0, 70 hours of battery life on a single AA battery, and a 14.5 square cm PCB footprint enabling incredibly small form factor products. With flexible software support and upgrade options, the SigmaTel SoC solution offers support for MP3 and WMA audio formats as well as WMA Digital Rights Management (DRM) security.
Availability
SigmaTel's STMP3600 RDK with the Infineon PMB8753 Bluetooth solution is now sampling to SigmaTel's beta customers for production in the second quarter. Customers interested in ordering the RDK should contact their local sales office listed on the SigmaTel web site at www.sigmatel.com or contact sales at sales@sigmatel.com.
Link is here: biz.yahoo.com
SigmaTel Launches Theater Quality, High Definition Audio Codecs Offering Simultaneous VOIP and Audio
Monday March 6, 9:00 am ET
SigmaTel Offers Customers Theater Quality Audio Solutions with New 8- and 10- Channel High Definition Audio Codecs
Link is here: biz.yahoo.com
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I think the PR dated today is truly significant and demonstrates that mgt is looking down the road. There is no question (at least as of current technology) that the biggest drag on MP3 and video players is the stupid hard-wired headset. Wireless is king. I think it's great that SGTL is sampling this product with customers now.
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