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


To: Mika Kukkanen who wrote (25551)3/30/1999 9:29:00 AM
From: marginmike  Respond to of 152472
 
Mike did you listen to the second conf call. It was said that the Ericy royalty was a trivality. It was a very small percentage of the overall rate. If Ericy had such a strong position, why such a small royalty? It is you who are misled. Qcom management said they will recieve the same royalty for WCDMA as for CDMA2000. If Ericy had such a strong position why would they do that? Ericy has been a terribly run company. In the industry they are known to have very little Technology that is developed in house. They havce been left behind. This deal buys them a seat at the table. However Ericy would have no reason to make this deal if WCDMA actually existed without Qcom's IPR's. Why would they buy q's infastructure division when they have their own? I dont care anyway, I think in about 2 Q's Ericy will be an interesting stock to buy. You are in LA LA land!



To: Mika Kukkanen who wrote (25551)3/30/1999 9:40:00 AM
From: Valueman  Respond to of 152472
 
Did you listen to QCOM's conference call on Friday? Many of the points you bring up were answered there. QCOM was asked about the royalty rates. They answered that ERICY will pay the same royalty as other licensees, and these royalties "will be uniform across all modes--cdmaONE, cdma2000, or W-CDMA." Maybe "they" can not and will not allow rates to be that high, but at least ERICY will pay that rate. The ITU does not set royalty rates. Q will pay royalties to ERICY on handsets only. It is small enough that they can continue to grow margins as they have been the last few quarters.

As for ERICY buying handset ASICs--cryptic as your CEO may be, his talk is transparent to those who listen.

QCOM "recognized" ERICY patents--BFD! Who gets the money? Who gets to sell ASICs with pass-thru rights. Q sells an ASIC, uses this IPR they just "recognized", and ERICY gets squat! Who has the upper hand I ask again?

ERICY won't promote cdmaONE? Give me a break! Will they skip that CDMA business in China? Hell no they won't. If China is going to have 40 million subs by 2005, ERICY will do their best to promote that business.

You've been spun. Don't feel bad though--you have much company.



To: Mika Kukkanen who wrote (25551)3/30/1999 9:42:00 AM
From: kech  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 152472
 
Mika- Right. So Ericy had the strong negotiation in the deal. It got everything. Qualcomm only gets to dump a loss making business. (Of course since they didn't get anything for it according to you they could have simply closed it down on their own.) The market reaction is therefore that Ericy is up at most 10% and Qualcomm is up 30-40%. Not that I think the market is always right, but you have to consider that there is a certain amount of face validity that is not present in your comments. With all QCOM patents affirmed or about to be affirmed (per JGOREN our legal consultant), China ready to bail out on ERICY (maybe due to a WTO offer on the make for Charlene), and NTT putting its feet to the fire, my sense is that ERICY was backed into a corner. I guess we will see though as further information comes forth. Tom



To: Mika Kukkanen who wrote (25551)3/30/1999 10:47:00 AM
From: brian h  Respond to of 152472
 
Mika,

Really! Really! If you recalled my statement before about a "changing tide" to CDMA in China, it is going to happen this time. Right? I am glad ERICY may has a chance to catch some action of it. In fact, you should be so pleased with it. ERICY is not left behind with this wave.

On 3/25/99 joint conference call between both companies, a royalty related question was raised. The answer from QCOM's CEO was that it will be shared (or netted against) in proportion to the party's patent holdings. ERICY's CEO did not answer the question and/or refute the answer.

If you recalled, ERICY had claimed less than 8 patents in CDMA (May be 5 only after dropping 3 nonsense patents a while ago). Q had at least 150 to 400s. (about 150 patents in US and the rest in other countries). Did you see the ratio here?

Also, on 3/26/99 Q's conference call, the same type of questions were raised on CDMAone, WCDMA, CDMA2000 royalty rates. Q's CEO explained many times to analysts the royalty sharing scheme by adding the rates did not change form any other deal they had made before (6% - if that is the rate minus other parties CDMA patent portfolios). ERICY got the same deal like any other company. No better and no less. LU and MOT had their CDMA portfolios too.

The fact is that ERICY signed a IS-95, WCDMA, CDMA2000 license and royalty agreement with Q after all the denying tactics previously. ERICY still retains a CDMA inventor after all. That is called a compromise and a Win-Win deal! Q got what it wants. So is ERICY.

In summary, you asked me before when the tide is going to change to CDMA in China. I say it is happening. And I am glad ERICY may still has the chance to catch some actions. As for Q and ERICY's license and royalty agreement on IS-95, WCDMA, CDMA2000, pay up or forget WCDMA (oh. ERICY just did.) OK! Nokia and other companies that want to do WCDMA pay up or forget WCDMA. I will be patient.

Best,

Brian H.



To: Mika Kukkanen who wrote (25551)3/30/1999 10:17:00 PM
From: JGoren  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 152472
 
First of all, there is no point in reiterating old arguments in an effort to placate each others' egos as to who was right.

Mika, you are wrong in saying that Ericy IPR was confirmed for IS-95; the parties glossed over who was right, thereby saving face for Ericy. The cross-licensing was essentially a way to make Ericy look good and leave the patent issues unresolved. The proof as to who had the stronger patent position is that Ericy will pay the same royalty rate as everyone else; it is pretty clear that the amount to be paid to Ericy will be very small.

I think a lot has been unstated. Qualcomm is counting on building a positive relationship with Ericy based on mutual self-interest. Ericy in the joint press conference indicated that it realized that buying handset ASIC's would make a lot of sense given its time frame for getting out its new handset line and the need to get up to speed regarding infra. Although there is no guarantee, I believe the rationale for chipset purchase from Qualcomm is strong and that Ericy will purchase chipsets at least for a significant period of time.