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

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (29334)	5/6/1999 4:35:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

From Yahoo> Hidden Value by: deanrbrenner 19420 of 19427 Despite all the attention that Qualcomm is getting with this major and well-deserved run-up in our stock, I am aware of two major items of hidden value in the company. First, Qualcomm applied several years ago to the FCC for a so-called pioneer's preference based on Qualcomm's innovations in CDMA for wireless telephony. Qualcomm asked for an award of a PCS license for the Miami area. The FCC denied the request, but granted the requests of three other companies whose proposals were not nearly as innovative as Qualcomm's. Qualcomm appealed the denial, and the Court of Appeals ruled in Qualcomm's favor and sent the matter back to the FCC to decide the proper remedy for Qualcomm (by then, the FCC had already awarded the Miami license to Sprint. The other pioneer's preference winners received substantial ($500 million) discounts on licenses in NY, LA, and Washington DC.) The FCC then did nothing for 13 months while Qualcomm repeatedly asked for a decision, and Congress then eliminated the pioneer's preference by statute. So, the FCC said no to Qualcomm again. Well, Qualcomm appealed again, and the Court of Appeals heard oral argument on April 22. The argument went very badly for the FCC and very well for Qualcomm. Chief Judge Edwards, who is known for writing opinions that track his comments at oral argument, told the FCC that Qualcomm had a vested right to a preference. The bottom line is that if Qualcomm wins, as I expect, it could receive a major market PCS license, or hundreds of millions of dollars worth of credits usable in future FCC auctions, which Qualcomm could sell. I see the expected victory in this case as adding hundreds of millions of dollars to Qualcomm's balance shet (which could be used to expand handset manufacturing capacity?). Second, Qualcomm has an equity interest in Unwired Planet (which changed its name to Phone.Com). Unwired Planet has a microbrowser that can be used to allow web surfing on wireless phones. I don't know the extent of Qualcomm's equity interest, but I noticed that Phone.Com filed recently for an IPO. With the run-up in Qualcomm's stock, this IPO could be a high flyer, which would add value to Qualcomm. These two hidden gems only make Qualcomm's very promising and rewarding future even more promising and rewarding. Does anyone know more about either of these two items? Dean Brenner