is... buying more shares
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Yes, he he did mention buybacks.
Merritt quoted: "...the company has been very aggressive historically in buying back shares, we've bought back 40% of the shares that were outstanding of the company, so over three quarters of a billion dollars...
We have a regular dividend, we've done special dividends... as we go forward with this deal in place you will probably see the company in the short term announce updates to its capital allocation policy. So there will be more coming on that."
It's a new era for WM and IDCC!
Fast Money w/ Bill Merritt:
(paraphrased) Samsung deal will cover 5G, the new deal is a "great statement by Samsung and sets a benchmark" for other major players (Apple, Huawei, ZTE, etc.). IDCC will use this deal as a negotiating tactic with the others, per response to this direct question.
With $17/share in cash, the company will soon update the allocation policy positively (my thoughts: we could possibly see a special dividend or increased qtrly dividend).
You know he will several times. Haha.
What's the money line on BM mentioning engine & transmission this afternoon?
Loved your comment, Louis.
Guidance for next quarter alone upped 17 - 23 million.
It was announced Friday afternoon on various websites including IPHawk's twitter feed.
Here is the PDF of the lawsuit:
DSS TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT, INC. vs. LENOVO (UNITED STATES), INC.
Commission Investigative Staff’s Response to the Motion of Nokia Corp., Nokia Inc., and Microsoft Mobile OY to Substitute Parties and Amend the Notice of Investigation, and Motion of Microsoft Mobile OY to Intervene for the Limited Purpose of Filing the Motion, Mot. Docket No. 613-088
Download/View Document (PDF File, 89 pages)
Yup, so far they are on a roll.
Which we should continue to expect since Cohen knew which patents he was bringing to VRNG and how (and against who) to assert them.
I can't wait to see who the next target of the NOK patent portfolio is going to be.
Chinese patent validation news isn't the kind if news that should move the stock.
1) Everyone already knows patents from Nokia are of the highest quality and the cherry picked patents asserted against ZTE globally are the real deal. We don't need confirmation.
2) VRNG is not suing ZTE in China
3) Chinese courts/regulatory body opinions are (virtually) meaningless
4) There are seven patents being challenged in China. This was just news on one of them. We expect them all to be valid and don't care what China says.
5) VRNG will probably never collect in China for any products or services sold in China.
6) Market has no clue how to value VRNG. Telling participants that China validated a patent might give many of them brain aneurysms as they try to pontificate on the significance.
7) Re-read #1.
That's low. The opportunity vs. Cisco is bigger than that. Per the complaint, Cisco had total revenues of over $43 billion for infringing (alleged) routing and switching product sales for just the last five years in the USA alone.
Then you have to figure in the other lawsuits:
* AT&T (geolocation infringement)
* T-Mobile (geolocation infringement)
* Uniden (cordless phone infringement)
* Vtech (cordless phone infringement)
* Juniper (routing and switching product/services infringement)
For the last three years, Juniper's revenues related to this infringement is approx $10 Billion... per the original complaint.
Hypothetically, a 1% royalty on past damages alone for all the infringers would be well above half a billion dollars. That's not even taking into account future royalties which could extend well into the next decade based on the expiration of the asserted patents. Moreover, SPEX is asserting that infringement (by CSCO and JNPR) is willful which opens up the possibility (small as it may be) that enhanced damages are on the table.
Now, before everyone gets too excited, the public is once again underestimating the capital structure of SPEX. There were approx 26 million shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis BEFORE today's news of 10 million shares of Series J preferred convertibles.
These IP stocks trade on perception. And the uncertainty related to the timing of litigation will create massive volatile moves and sentiment will change back & forth many times over. Don't blindly buy a stock like SPEX and treat it as a core long term holding. Those that did this yesterday lost about half of their money overnight. Or at the very least, could have saved themselves half of their basis had they waited a mere 24 hours to pull the trigger.
I was promoting this stock under $2 because I knew it was going to pop. I took profits because the pop came on news (or lack thereof) that was not fundamentally tied to the company's bottom line or specific chances to prevail in its current litigation campaigns. Once the dust settles, I may re-visit SPEX. But for now I think it's trading on misinformation and a tremendous amount of misunderstanding by those who are ignorant to the realities of intellectual property investments.
Spanky, this truly was an amazing play. Glad we all were able to make big $$$ here. These opportunities don't come around very often. But for SPEX, we got it twice. LOL!
Well that didn't take long now, did it?
Everyone who has been buying on the dips the last few months, congratulations to you.
I'm happy to report back that the wood (to knock on) I was able to find was quality grade.
$9.05
because at $27 the valuation of SPEX was approximately $500 million, which is not supported by fundamentals in any way shape or form
The market cluelessly was trading SPEX without considering the dilutive effect of the merger with North South
That was then, this is now. Today, on a fully diluted basis, there are approx 26 million shares outstanding. Which gives SPEX a very healthy valuation in the $65 million range. There is upside from here if the company can execute.
Do you see a mistake?
Cuz I sure don't. Christmas came early today.
Thanks, OD. I wanted to me sure I was reading it correctly.
It will be quite interesting to see what happens next with MSFT. But I am even more excited to see NOK emerge with all of their patents as one of the biggest NPEs in the world. And clearly the largest publicly traded NPE.
Here is the PDF:
MOTION OF NOKIA CORPORATION, NOKIA INC., AND MICROSOFT MOBILE OY TO SUBSTITUTE PARTIES AND AMEND THE NOTICE OF INVESTIGATION, AND MOTION OF MICROSOFT MOBILE OY TO INTERVENE FOR THE LIMITED PURPOSE OF FILING THE MOTION TO SUBSTITUTE PARTIES AND AMEND THE NOTICE OF INVESTIGATION (file size: 4.60 MB, 217 pages)
I believe that China doesn't necessarily "play fair" when it comes to IP, both on a manufacturing, licensing, and judicial level. We all remember last year's ruling by the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court that declared a FRAND rate that Huawei should pay IDCC should not be greater than 0.019% (no that's not a type, it's less than one-fifth of one percent).
But by the same token, I think we all need to be aware in telecom that the Chinese has spent decades developing its home grown versions of wireless standards (such as TD-SCDMA, for example). Equipment and devices manufactured to be compliant with these systems aren't going to intersect patent portfolios the same way as those made for vanilla CDMA2K, UMTS, and the other more widely standardized systems of Euro/Americas. So I could see how ZTE would want to, and probably would deserve, some consideration for its domestic offerings.
I couldn't say. Gonna have to wait for CAFC to see how it rules to know for sure.
Just look at EONC (up 63% as of this post) and SPEX (up 20% as of this post).
No news for either. That SCOTUS casse doesn't affect either.
We are seeing a massive movement back into risk-on tech, including IP sector today. Oversold stocks are bouncing. And VRNG appears that it is one of them.
Sometimes there is no real news to move stocks down. And none to move them back up. It's an irrational market that often trades on perception that is impossible to quantify and analyze.
filled at .1330
looking to add more in next few days, especially if it goes lower
Interesting. I'm guessing there is no news, just a long overdue bounce. There are a number of beaten up IP companies bouncing today on no news.
As for "Chinese telecom settlement front" that begs an important question: Will ZTE actually settle globally or for a worldwide license ex-China?
From what I have seen historically, there is very little infringement resolution involving actual Chinese sales/services. That country's production has definitely been a tough nut to crack.
I waited until after SGLB earnings to get back in. Just placed my first order to buy back. Hoping I fill today.
Will probably hold this long term now and stop flipping.
He's the one that pointed me here to MARA a long time ago.
No. Not realistic.
This the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The "insiders" you mention (whoever they may be) won't know the case disposition until it is publicly unveiled to everyone.
Said opinion has not yet been written. There's nothing to be leaked.
Nope, I do not believe you are missing anything.
The only thing that makes a little bit of sense to me would be that some are taking profits in MARA to fund purchases of other distressed/bargain stocks. The overall market has been brutal recently, especially for tech.
I guess there's a reason they say to sell in May and go away (for the summer).
$2.78 million. Nice quarter!
http://ir.marathonpg.com/company-news/detail/564
Marathon Announces First Quarter Financial Results
Record Quarterly Revenue of $2.78 Million
Non-GAAP Net Income of $854,000 and Non-GAAP Earnings per Share of $0.16
ALEXANDRIA, VA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/15/14 -- Marathon Patent Group, Inc. (OTCQB: MARA) ("Marathon" or the "Company") today reported results for the three months ended March 31, 2014.
Revenues in the first quarter of 2014 were $2,780,000, as compared to $0 in the comparable three months ended March 31, 2013.
Quarterly revenue grew by approximately 132% for the three-month period ending March 31, 2014 as compared to the three-month period ending December 31, 2013.
GAAP net loss in the first quarter of 2014 was ($281,606) or ($0.05) per diluted share, as compared to GAAP net loss of ($605,536) or ($0.17) per diluted share for the comparable three months ended March 31, 2013.
Non-GAAP net income in the first quarter of 2014 was $854,085, or $0.16 per diluted share, as compared to non-GAAP net loss of ($367,604), or ($0.10) per diluted share for the comparable three months ended March 31, 2013. (See information below regarding non-GAAP measures.)
Cash and cash equivalents totaled $5,410,629 as of March 31, 2014, compared to $3,610,262 as of December 31, 2013...
What a day for SPEX. Up over 33% on volume.
Crazy stock.
Pretty much as expected:
* opened higher than where last night's one AH trade was priced
* traded as high as yesterday's regular session close
* down 7% as I type this
There is some news today.
From iphawk's twitter feed:
IPHawk @TheIpHawk
VRNG interview summary with examiner on '420 reexamination… My opinion is it looks good on this front.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/224075062/420-Re-Exam-Interview
Yes. But it's just one trade AH for 3K shares. Not necessarily an indicator of where this will open tomorrow.
I will say there was nothing too exciting in today's report, so another downward movement wouldn't be surprising. Although it is nice to see they acquired additional IP without spending much money to do so. Would be nice to have some more color on those patents, but obviously can't expect them to unveil strategic info.
No, nobody knows. Licensing agreements can be structured in an infinite number of ways.
They may include payments for past usage, payments for future usage, or no payments. Ongoing royalties can commence at the start of the agreement, or any other day in the future the parties agree to.
And once such commencement date has begun, any future royalties may be reported on a delayed basis. Those who follow other IP licensing stocks, such as IDCC, know that revenue recognition is generally one quarter in arrears from the date the subscriber units/services were actually sold by the licensee.
All we can do is wait for disclosure.
Yes, very exciting. It's refreshing to see this stock continue to outperform almost all others in this sector. And it's doing so in a healthy, under-the-radar fashion.
Now excuse me, as I must go find some wood to knock on.
That article is terrible and perpetuates fallacies that amateur patent investors too easily believe. In response to your post:
One, the MSFT patent is not from a different jurisdiction. It is a U.S. patent. An INPADOC patent family search reveals no foreign counterparts or applications for US6556983.
Two, GOOG's advertising revenues in the U.S. have already being litigated. VRNG can not obtain a second recovery on the same revenues even with different patents.
You might want to do research into some of the basics of patent enforcement, notably those related to royalty stacking and patent exhaustion. Most every case law decision handed down has made this extremely clear.
And since we know the current ongoing royalty decision from district court covers infringement through expiration of the IPE patents in 2016, there would be at minimum of two years before any "new" enforcement could even begin.
This entire concept of putting additional pressure on GOOG is absurd. It's sad how an amateur blogger at SA can so easily convince retail investors to believe nonsense.