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

To: JMD who wrote (6065)	12/9/1997 5:47:00 PM
From: Pierre	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

A little Qualcomm history: (excerpts from an article in today's SD Union) Linkabit, a San Diego business that helped spawn some of the region's most-successful telecommunications companies, plans to sell stock for the first time -- almost 30 years after it was founded. ... ... ... In the genealogy of San Diego's Telecom Valley, more than 30 companies trace their roots to the glory days of Linkabit, which today specializes in satellite communications equipment. ... At a Linkabit 25th anniversary reunion held in 1993, former Linkabit employees used a chalkboard to chart their branching relationships in the Linkabit family tree. By the end of the party, 27 companies -- including Qualcomm, ViaSat and CommQuest -- had traced their lineage to Linkabit. Founded as a consulting firm in 1968 by Irwin M. Jacobs and Andrew J. Viterbi, Linkabit quickly became renowned for its innovative development of new communications equipment. "It was an engineering-driven company," recalled Martha G. Dennis, who joined Linkabit as a software engineer and rose quickly to assistant vice president of engineering. "It was a company that valued engineers. If you were a staff engineer, it meant you were a god." But Linkabit's corporate culture began changing after it was acquired by M/A-Com Inc. of Burlington, Mass., in 1980. Jacobs, apparently frustrated by his dealings with his corporate superiors, left Linkabit in 1985. A few months later, he and Viterbi started Qualcomm. "All of a sudden, a bunch of people were leaving to join Qualcomm, and everything else began to change," said Mark Dankberg, a former Linkabit engineer who quit the company in 1986 to start ViaSat Inc. in Carlsbad. ... ... Since Linkabit's 25th reunion, Dennis said the number of spinoffs has increased beyond 30... Pierre

To: JMD who wrote (6065)	12/10/1997 12:26:00 AM
From: Valueman	Respond to of 152472

Mike Doyle: ViaSat is not alone. Linkabit Wireless is being partially spun out of Titan, which will retain 70% ownership. They also have good DAMA technology(that is Demand Assigned Multiple Access)that competes with ViaSat. Go to ViaSat's web site and find their distributors--click on their sites and take a look at the commercial applications to get a good understanding of what's going on with these technologies. This satellite industry is full of opportunity. Orbit/FR is another huge growth company that tests both cellular and satellite equipment(not a bad couple of industries to be allied with!). I have been very pleased with my investments in PanAmSat and GM Hughes. APT Satellite and AsiaSat in Hong Kong(and ADRs) look attractive. I haven't had time to look into Gilat, Alcatel, Echostar, British Sky, Globecomm, Applied Signal, etc. So much opportunity, so little time. By the way, I can talk about satellites without an "off topic" warning because of QCOM's Globalstar connection. If only the Huskers were CDMA users, I would be in great shape!

To: JMD who wrote (6065)	12/10/1997 4:38:00 PM
From: Asterisk	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 152472

Multi streaming is not a standard, just like CDMA is not a standard. From what I understand of internet multistreaming what they do is basically compress the video and sound and send it in one stream. If any one company gets a patent on a killer way of doing this then that would be where they could make their money. It is a lot like IS-95. Qualcomm did not write the standard but they hold patents that are extremely hard (if not impossible) to get around and still meet IS-95. If this company got a standard accepted and patented or copyrighted (I am not a lawyer) some part of it, or a method or whatever they could make some cash. Odviously I am stretching here so I am hoping this helps.