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revlis, is this the reason...
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=20780673
Spencer, Yes
MMC89...here it is
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0704190577apr20,0,712574.story?coll=chi-business-hed
Motorola must pay $23 million to lawyers
Judge finds company cheated during trial
From Tribune news services
Published April 20, 2007
FT. LAUDERDALE -- Motorola Inc. must pay $22.9 million to Willie Gary and other lawyers who sued the company in a trade-secrets case that ended in a mistrial, a Florida judge ruled Thursday.
Judge Leroy Moe granted $20 million in fees and $2.9 million in costs. Motorola, which said it will appeal the ruling, must pay the other side's legal bills as punishment for letting witnesses read transcripts of prior testimony before taking the stand.
Motorola's violation "goes right to the heart of the civil justice system and it certainly has to be addressed," Moe said Thursday.
Gary had asked for $11,000 an hour, or $24.5 million, for 2,231.5 hours of work, and had asked the judge to triple his team's total fees to $93.5 million. Moe did not discuss hourly rates or say how the money is to be divided. If two-thirds of the fee award is for Gary personally, as he proposed, he is to be paid about $6,000 an hour.
"I feel the judge sent a message to corporate America and to Motorola that you can't cheat and get away with it," Gary said after the ruling.
"This is a huge win for Motorola," the company's lead attorney, Faith Gay, said, hugging Gary in the courtroom. "You walked out with peanuts."
"You got busted," Gary replied.
SPS Technologies, which Gary represented, also sought a $100 million restitution penalty, which the judge did not mention when ruling. Gary can file a motion to have the judge address that issue specifically.
The jury deadlocked in November after a seven-week trial over claims by SPS, a defunct Florida company, that Schaumburg-based Motorola stole its technology for tracking vehicles and withdrew from a joint venture, putting it out of business. No retrial date has been set.
After the trial Moe said he would sanction Motorola by ordering it to pay "reasonable" bills submitted by Gary and his team of attorneys.
In the lawsuit SPS said the planned joint venture would have developed a system combining roadside motorist assistance with a satellite global positioning system.
Gary asked the jury to award his client $10 billion in damages, 10 percent of the maximum value placed on the venture by Motorola's accountants.
The six-member panel was equally divided on its fourth day of deliberations, and Moe declared a mistrial.
Gary testified in the fee hearing that his firm took the case when no one else would and spent five years poring over more than 500,000 documents to prepare for trial before Motorola "cheated."
"They knew they were going down," Gary said during closing arguments Thursday. "We wouldn't even be here if they had played fair."
But Gay and other Motorola attorneys argued that the trial was not going as well as SPS' lawyers thought and that they failed to follow proper procedures established by case law in asking for the fees and costs.
"They asked for all these fees in a case that your honor said was difficult, very difficult," Gay said during her closing arguments. "They're here asking your honor essentially for a do-over."
Fee expert Robert Montgomery, a Florida personal-injury lawyer, testified on behalf of Gary's firm. He said the lawyer was owed as much as $2 billion, half the 40 percent contingency fee he would have received had he won all he asked.
The rates for other lawyers on the team ranged from $100 to $1,000 an hour, according to court filings.
John Locke, a Motorola expert witness, admitted to having read transcripts of previous testimony the day after Moe had admonished the company for providing transcripts to another expert witness.
Gary is a prominent trial lawyer who travels in a custom-fitted Boeing 737 dubbed "Wings of Justice II."During Thursday's hearing Motorola's lawyers and even the judge referred to Gary as a "superstar" and a "legend."
Loop- You are such a pleasure to read. Thanks for all you do.
From Eneerg1,
(sorry, if posted previously)
Filed under: Samsung, UMTS, Misc
Are Samsung’s BlackJack and other handsets from the Korean manufacturer using pilfered WCDMA technology? That’s the most recent lawsuit claim from technology company InterDigital that was set in motion some time ago. Now, the company wants Samsung to “stop dragging its feet” and pay up like Nokia agreed to almost a year ago in terms of using WCDMA tech in certain 3G handsets. At issue is Samsung’s alleged infringement on some of InterDigital’s WCDMA patents inside several Samsung handsets. At stake is a settlement bill for royalty payment purposes that totals a whopping $134 million based on an earlier arbitration settlement. Samsung is required to stop importing infringing handsets as well at the bequest of InterDigital; additionally, the handset maker is chiming in for a more relaxed royalty arrangement like the one Nokia received. However, Sammy may have PO’ed InterDigital a little too far here to get any breaks.
http://www.phoneotaku.com/2007/04/12/samsung-requested-to-pay-interdigital-handsome-sum/
Could it be S a m s u n g...naaaaah...too much to ask
$0.37 per diluted share
Earnings Release is out
Company Projects First Quarter 2007 Recurring Revenue of $53 million to $55 million
Web Site is up...http://www.interdigital.com/
Access to the conference call from the U.S. (800) 289-0573 by 9:50 a.m. EST on February 28. Ask operator for InterDigital Financial Call. From outside the U.S. dial (913) 981-5544.
live access to the call on its web site at: www.interdigital.com. click on link to the Live Web Cast on the homepage.
a replay of the call will be available from 1:00 p.m. EST February 28 for 30 days. dial (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820 and use the replay passcode 6156438.
JimLur, this link works fine now. The document opens.
Thanks
pochemunyet, re poison pills...three general explanations follow:
1) http://www.answers.com/topic/poison-pill
poison pill n. Informal.
A plan or tactic intended to make a hostile corporate takeover prohibitively expensive, as one in which a company's stockholders are offered shares of stock at a bargain price in the event that a single suitor acquires a high percentage of the stock.
2)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_pill
Shareholder Rights Plans
The target company issues rights to existing shareholders to acquire a large number of new securities, usually common stock or preferred stock. These new rights usually allow holders (other than an acquirer) to convert the right into a large number of common shares if anyone acquires more than a set amount of the target's stock (typically 10-20%). This immediately dilutes the percentage of the target owned by the acquirer, and makes it more expensive to acquire control of the target. This form of poison pill is sometimes called a shareholder rights plan because it is intended to give management (and possibly shareholders) the right to approve an acquisition, potentially requiring the acquirer to pay a premium for control of the target. Because the board of directors of the company can redeem or otherwise eliminate a standard poison pill, it does not typically block or impede a proxy fight or other takeover not accompanied by an acquisition of a significant block of the company's stock.
3) http://www.teenanalyst.com/advanced/poisonpill.html
When I was young, I didn't always get along with my sister and there were times when I'd have something that she wanted but I didn't want to share. In order to win the fight and get things MY way, I'd try to do something to it so that she would no longer want it. I would never have thought that this same thing is often practiced in the business world...
When a company wants to buy out another public company they have to make an offer and the shareholders usually give their approval. Every once in a while, a company doesn't want to be bought out and that's when things turn hostile (hence the name "hostile takeover").
Usually when a company doesn't want to be taken over, it's because they feel that the offer is inadequate and they think that shareholders would be better served if the company wasn't bought out. In order to prevent the hostile takeover from happening, the company can adopt a "poison pill" plan.
The poison pill is meant to make the company so expensive and unattractive that the potential buyer would no longer be interested. The company can do this in a number of ways. One common way is to issue lots of shares of stock so that it's harder for buyer to acquire a majority of the shares. Some companies also begin issuing preferred stock to the shareholders to give them more power in the event of a takeover. Another way that companies discourage takeovers is by taking on a heap of new debt.
Poison pills are usually only used to serve the shareholders' best interest by protecting them from being bought out at a low price. If the company feels that the shareholders are best served by being acquired by the new company, then the company usually agrees to the offer. So if you hear about "poison pills" in the news, you'll know what they're talking about.
JimLur, in this article, DoCoMo describes the importance of GCF certification as:
“GCF certification is widely accepted as a guarantee of the quality and compatibility”
Article excerpts:
GCF is a partnership between network operators and terminal manufacturers to ensure global interoperability of 2G (GSM) and 3G (W-CDMA) wireless terminals. DoCoMo has been a member of GCF since October 2002.
Field Trial Qualified Operators open their commercial networks to terminal manufacturers to enable them to test the operability of their handsets.
GCF has become the leading international forum for 2G/3G testing and certification. GCF certification is widely accepted as a guarantee of the quality and compatibility of GSM-based 2G handsets, and the certification is expected to become increasingly important for W-CDMA 3G handsets as well.
http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/June2005/1573.htm
Technical Analysis from Fidelity:
Continuation Diamond (Bullish)
A Continuation Diamond (Bullish) is considered a bullish signal, indicating that the current uptrend may continue. Prices create higher highs and lower lows in a broadening pattern, then the trading range gradually narrows after the highs peak and the lows start trending upward. The technical event occurs when prices break upward out of the diamond formation to continue the prior uptrend, which confirms the pattern.
Event Date September 18, 2006
Opportunity Type Bullish
Close Price 32.98
Volume 999,800
Pattern Duration 102 days
Inbound Trend Duration 257 days
Possible Target Price Range 42.00 - 45.00
Taken from Fidelity/ Research/ Stocks-IDCC/ Technical Analysis
Jim, forwarded to you via email Ford Equity Research's latest report dated 9/9/06 from Fidelity, upgrading IDCC to Buy/ Most Favorable, their highest rating. Excerpts...
"The Ford research team projects that IDCC will strongly outperform the market over the next 6 to 12 months."
Recommendation Decision: Buy/ Most Favorable
Earnings Momentum: Positive
Valuation: Very Positive
Price Momentum: Very Positive
Good find Gio...
Global cell phone makers are on high alert on news that InterDigital Communications of the U.S., which owns core GSM technologies, has been awarded massive royalties from Samsung Electronics,
Samsung has appealed the decision to a district court and is also negotiating with the U.S. firm.
the two (Samsung & Nokia) have to pay more if they are to continue using InterDigital's technologies.
LG Electronics concluded it has no chance of winning and agreed to pay $285 million including past royalties.
InterDigital owns 4,200 core patents related to GSM wireless technology, registering eight core technologies including air interface solutions that assist wireless communications between mobile handsets and base stations with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).
But with the rapid growth of the global cell phone market, InterDigital demanded some 1.5 percent of their phone selling prices in royalties, which caused the present conflict.
As a result, its performance is improving rapidly, posting $348 million in sales in the first half of this year alone, up from $100 million in 2004.
Korean phone makers are worried InterDigital will become another Qualcomm
Vexari, go to Wireless Ledger. Here's an excerpt from that web site regarding IDC's poison pill:
My comment: Forget the $250.00 threshold...
"InterDigital has been sufficiently wary of a hostile takeover at an unsatisfactory price that the Board of Directors has instituted a "poison pill" defense.
The basic methodology for InterDigital's "poison pill" defense has been found effective in causing major delays in hostile takeover attempts, if not blowing the attempts out of the water outright. Some of the provisions of InterDigital’s poison pill strategy are deliberately kept secret to help foil the hostile takeover. The strategy involves automatically enabling a new class of stock that would be in "safe hands" of shareholders not willing to sell at the level offered. The new shares have "trump card" voting power versus the common shares (that might fall into the hands of the takeover specialist) currently held by shareholders. The strategy, at a minimum, forces the potential acquirer to become involved in a dialogue with InterDigital and avoids the blindsiding of the Board of Directors by a sneak attack.
Of course, a poison pill is only intended to prevent a hostile takeover, not a friendly acquisition. Under some conditions, the Board of Directors and shareholders might welcome a friendly takeover. WirelessLedger doubts that an offer of less than $100 per share would be viewed as friendly by the Board of Directors, because of the Company's earnings potential when 3G technology becomes dominant and annual earnings of up to $1 billion might be possible."
http://www.wirelessledger.com/TabbedPages/IDCCreport/Valuation.htm#acqupotential
WirelessLedger Home Page:
http://www.wirelessledger.com/Index.html
Bill Dalglish's last Post regarding the Web Site:
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=11611123
Walldiver, how much revenue could a Samsung 2G/3G license bring, when their handset sales are around 100m/yr?
Would .80/ unit be conservative?
Hence, isn't 42 or 43 per share low?
Welcome any opinions
Loop, great Post as always
Loophole, question regarding IDCC’s legal strategy… (by the way, welcome any legal opinions)
Since Nok’s (and possibly Sam’s) contract expires this year, would you think that IDCC's legal strategy includes requesting (on Jan 2nd) an injunction, for infringement, on sales of all 2G and 3G Nokia sales.
If so, would expect IDCC is soon formally notifying Nokia if it hasn’t done so already. I guess the existing license could possibly have a provision for giving notice to renew and Nokia’s required response. To request such an injunction, does IDCC even have to wait for the license to expire or is infringement appearing legally imminent enough.
If such an injunction is legally prudent, could Mot’s or BenQ’s be far behind.
I apologize if topic has been discussed in the context posed above.
OT OT Seems as though you have disabled cookies. Ck your privacy settings for internet Explorer...
go to "tools"/"internet options"/ "privacy"/ use the slider to enable cookies
DD, ver. 7 may be the problem.
All my problems with adobe appeared when I upgraded from 6 to 7. I had to return to ver. 6 to get my system to once again run right.
mschere, arbitrator's authority (good post)
"This decision upholds the authority of arbitrators to provide parties with remedies including all available damages under the law. And, while this decision serves as a reminder that an arbitration award can be overturned for manifest disregard of the law, the Court's opinion makes clear that a corrected arbitration award will be confirmed."
Global handset makers locked in merger dance
Wednesday 1 March 2006, 3:06am EST Reuters Summit-
By Shailendra Bhatnagar and Jennifer Tan
http://today.reuters.com/business/newsArticle.aspx?type=technology&storyID=nT180395
HONG KONG, March 1 (Reuters) - Your new handset is certainly better and may be cheaper than your previous phone, but the choice of brands will reduce drastically in the coming years as smaller players exit the cut-throat market.
High research and development costs and a trend towards low-margin but high-volume phones are likely to force further consolidation among mobile handset makers.
The global top five -- Nokia, Motorola, Samsung Electronics (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research), LG Electronics (066570.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) and Sony Ericsson (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) (ERICb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research) -- already make roughly 75 percent of all mobile phones.
Around 45 vendors are left fighting for the remaining 25 percent share, which analysts say is clearly untenable.
"In general, consolidation will probably happen. The question is when and how. We have been acquiring as well," said Simon Leung, Motorola's senior vice president of Asia, at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit.
"Partnership is probably the norm going forward rather than the exception. If the right opportunity presents itself we will not hesitate."
In February, top handset maker Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research) and Sanyo Electric Co. (6764.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said they would jointly develop and make phones for the CDMA standard, which is dominant in the United States and popular in parts of Latin America and Asia.
The same month, Motorola Chief Executive Ed Zander said the company was considering a partnership with a Japanese phone maker to launch handsets to boost its presence in Japan.
Taiwan's top mobile phone and computer gear maker, BenQ Corp (2352.TW: Quote, Profile, Research), took over the loss-making cell phone unit of Germany's Siemens AG (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) in October last year.
Analysts say technical expertise, mega advertising budgets and multiple manufacturing sites, mainly in fast-growing markets such as China and India, will separate the men from the boys.
"The winners will be a handful of mega-vendors with global economies of scale," said Neil Mawston, analyst at Strategy Analytics.
"They have such massive strengths in brand, products and distribution that it is hard to see how any competitor can overturn such power in a globally maturing market. Nokia has a huge marketing budget that most competitors can only dream of."
Analysts say Chinese and Japanese handset makers are especially at risk as they battle sliding margins and rising competition from European, American and Korean rivals.
One analyst, who declined to be named, said firms such as Kejian Co. Ltd. (000035.SZ: Quote, Profile, Research), Soutec (Group) Technology Co. and Nanjing Panda Electronic Co. Ltd. (0553.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) were struggling with the effects of falling margins, flattening sales and intense competition from foreign brands in the Chinese market.
CHEAP IS BEST
Last year saw the emergence of ultra-cheap phones that opened up the market for low-income and cost-conscious subscribers in emerging economies such as India and Africa.
To tap these galloping markets, where margins are razor-thin and logistics generally a nightmare, handset majors need to set up plants locally to meet soaring demand.
"A company like Nokia, based in Europe, will have difficulty in reducing the average price per unit which is necessary to compete in developing Asian markets," said Daniel Longfield, analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
"That is why Nokia is building a factory in India -- to reduce both shipping costs to Asia and also greatly decrease manufacturing costs."
India, the world's fastest growing wireless market, is expected to soak up at least 53 million handsets in 2006. Nokia, which is setting up a plant in the southern city of Chennai, has more than two-thirds of the market there.
Handsets are going to get cheaper still, pushing second and third tier players to the fringes of the exploding market where more than 850 million units are expected to be sold in 2006.
A soon-to-be-sold single chip by Texas Instruments (TXN.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's third biggest chipmaker, is likely to push entry-level handset prices down to around $20.
Second-ranked Motorola Inc. (MOT.N: Quote, Profile, Research), a Texas Instruments buyer, has won two projects to supply operators in emerging markets with at least 12 million cheap handsets, which sell at less than $30 at wholesale prices.
Motorola expects to ship 20 million such units this year.
"As we move forward pricing pressures will be huge and vendors that are not able to cut costs will be unable to compete," said Frost & Sullivan's Longfield.
Pricing pressures are also severe at the top end. Market research group iSuppli estimates the average wholesale price of a mobile phone -- the price paid to the manufacturer -- will fall to $129 in 2006, down 9 percent from $142 in 2005.
After pouring billions of dollars on third-generation (3G) networks, mobile operators are demanding cheaper phones that can deliver video and other multimedia services to handsets.
Analysts say only those players who have strong research and development bases at cheaper locations such as India can withstand these price pressures.
Motorola's Leung said at the summit, held in Hong Kong, that he did not think a Chinese player would emerge in the top five in the near future.
"The Chinese are going backwards in terms of market share," he said. "Handsets are all about scale. The top 2 are more than 50 percent -- there is not enough market to go around. I personally think it is going to be very difficult."
Financial Results on March 9,
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060228/20060228006002.html?.v=1
LongIDCC, see Ghor's post 142341.
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=9439766
3,869,688 off Fidelity...real time
Piper Jaffray, 2006, $ 3.22...Worth repeating...
11/4/05 InterDigital Communications IDCC Piper Jaffray 2006 Prev. Est 0.62
Rev Est 3.22
419.35% Change
http://www.realtimetraders.com/marketinfo/g_minfo.asp?vid=0&page=revisions&pg=4
Learning2vest, then again, (we could hope that) Lucent may have previously agreed to a license absent Tantivy’s IPR. Hence, this legal action for only Tantivy’s IPR, intended to resolve the last disputed issue for an all encompassing license and associated discounts for it’s broad application.
One can dream...
ziploc_1, right on the money (unintended pun)
IDoCare, I do not understand the "level 2" part. However, Fidelity requires that you submit their form to allow you to trade in Options. I do not recall but it took days to a week (maybe) to obtain the ability to trade in options.
UPDATE 1-Nokia may contest patent arbitration decision
Tue Jul 5, 2005 10:54 AM ET
(Adds details, background, comment.)
NEW YORK/HELSINKI, July 5 (Reuters) - Mobile phone maker Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research) may contest an arbitration court's decision in a patent dispute with U.S. wireless technology firm InterDigital (IDCC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , the Finnish firm said on Tuesday.
InterDigital said last week the decision by the International Court of Arbitration meant the world's biggest mobile phone maker would have to pay up to $252 million in royalty payments for technology it used during 2002-2006.
Nokia did not specify the size of royalty payments it would have to pay to InterDigital but said one of the three arbitrators had disagreed with the panel's final decision, opening the door to change the outcome.
"Nokia is pleased that all three arbitrators concluded that the royalties being sought by InterDigital were unwarranted and reduced them by more than half," the firm said in a statement.
"At the same time, Nokia must give due consideration to the issues regarding the enforceability of the decision and will consider the option of moving to vacate or modify the majority decision in this matter," it added.
InterDigital Communications Corporation, which develops wireless technology for mobile phones and networks, receives most of its revenues from royalties on patents.
It has also claimed in a related case that Samsung Electronics (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) owes the firm money for its cellular technology. It said a hearing under that arbitration process would begin in October.
http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyNewsArticle.jhtml?duid=mtfh01177_2005-07-05_14-54-32_l05...
JimLur, please add my name to the list.
dooger, we share your pain.
snowblow5, a contract's arbitration clause merely provides an alternative (to court) to resolve disputes between the parties. It's presence does not, in itself, pardon either party, including breaches of contract.
(Not an attorney)
Learning, great post...must read
Loop, thank you, you are priceless.
Jim, great post
We are so close, this pretty much tells it all.
You know Nic, I don’t really know what’s going to happen here, but there is no way in hell I will be selling until I find out.
Learning, here's you world clock
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
Enough
In retrospect, Howard was apparently on the outs for some time.
ELI_R, in the cc, Merrit said that the board had identified him as the successor prior to the actual change, as follows (in bold):
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Shapiro, Intrepid Investors - Analyst [24]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just a question for Bill, I guess. Speaking as an investor, I'm certainly not -- I doubt if anybody's particularly disappointed with Howard's leaving. Frankly, he was a pretty big pain in the ass to deal with. But having said that, the timing is obviously a little bit shocking, given the Nokia arbitration. A., Could you just reiterate the Nokia arbitration process, and B., maybe you could provide a little bit more color or specificity in terms of what exactly precipitated the move at this point in time, given the Nokia arbitration and its importance? In other words, was any portion of that related to strategy with respect to dealing with Nokia? Were there specific points of disagreement in strategy? The timing obviously hit the stock, and it's obviously a concern. So if you could flesh that out a little bit I think it would be helpful.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Merritt, InterDigital Communications - President and CEO [25]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sure. We're not going to get into the discussions that went on as to why it would happen at any particular point in time. Things happen when it is appropriate to happen. I want to reaffirm that, as I said in my opening remarks, that it had nothing to do with Nokia. That was not part of the mix here. Again, the Board, as it should, is always looking to enhance the performance of the Company. The decision to make a change to enhance the performance of the Company is made when the Board believe that that decision should be made. That happens to be this week. As you would expect, the Company has succession planning that is part of its business. So I had been identified along the way as the internal successor to that position. So when at the time the Board decided it was time to make the move, we were able to do it in a fairly seamless way. So other than that, I think that my remarks covered it, and we are moving forward at this point.