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I think that part of the apparent discrepancy lies in the fact that the $1 to $2 per device represents the average royalty per device plus all other revenue sources (IC's, IPR, IFX royalties, Engineering Services, etc).
The equation looks more like:
Avg. $ per device = (Device Royalties + Other Revenues)/# Devices
IMHO
I seem to remember that Micky said he bought MAR 30 Calls, not JAN 30.
I wonder if IDCC would be interested in acquiring this IPR...
Student makes cellphone battery breakthrough
27 Nov 2008 The Gazette SARAH SCHMIDT CANWEST NEWS SERVICE
IPHONES, BLACKBERRYS Reduces devices’ ‘ power- sucking’
OTTAWA – An Ottawa inventor has pulled off something the titans of innovation behind the iPhone couldn’t – find a way to reduce power consumption of the “power-sucking” device to increase battery life.
Atif Shamim, an electronics Ph.D. student at Carleton University, has built a prototype that extends the battery life of portable gadgets such as the iPhone and BlackBerry, by getting rid of all the wires used to connect the electronic circuits with the antenna.
The wireless hardware expert has designed a new packaging technique to connect the antenna with the circuits. This is done through a wireless connection between a micro-scale antenna embedded within the circuits on the chip, with the efficient antenna on the package.
“This has not been tried before – that the circuits are connected to the antenna wirelessly. They’ve been connected through wires and a bunch of other components. That’s where the power gets lost,” Shamim said in an interview.
He estimates his module consumes 12 times less power than the traditional, wired-transmitter module. It is also much simpler in design, lowering the overall cost of any hand-held device, Shamim added.
The research, to be published in the forthcoming edition of Microwave Journal, already has received international accolades. Last month, the article about the invention, co-authored by Muhammad Arsalan and adviser Langis Roy of Carleton’s department of electronics, was named the best paper at the European Wireless Technology Conference.
The judges lauded Shamim for the “excellent integration of system design, material sciences and electromagnetic antenna design.” They also said the innovation is “highly relevant, with large potential for commercialization.”
He has filed patent applications in the U.S. and in Canada, in the knowledge consumers continue to gripe about the short-life span of the iPhone battery.
“It’s a common problem. There are so many applications in the iPhone, it’s like a powersucking machine,” said Shamim.
In June, 2007, Apple tried to answer critics who had given the iPhone low marks for its short battery life. Five months after unveiling the new product, the company announced the iPhone could now get up to eight hours of talk time, up from the five hours of talk time and 16 hours of audio playback at the launch.
But the move has failed to tone down the commentary. In the Dec. 1 edition of Newsweek, Forbes senior editor Daniel Lyons, writing under his “alter ego” the Fake Steve Jobs, captured the current state of affairs in his latest satirical salvo.
The newsmagazine has “reached the life-altering, mindblowing conclusion that batteries suck. Stop the friggin’ presses! Of course they do, and the imbeciles who make them can’t seem to make them better, which is holding back everything that is good and noble about our brave new electronic world. Example No. 1: the iPhone,” the satirical piece states.
“Frankly, I’m sick to death of the carping about the iPhone’s battery life. Look, the fact is, we warned people about this.”
If an iPhone battery needs repairing, Apple will service it for $89, plus $10.77 for shipping for Canadian customers. All data on the iPhone are lost during the service, which normally takes three business days.
Have never agreed with Cramer more!
That is either a $75,000 bet that good news will come out and the share price will exceed $30.30 before expiration or some short is willing to cover a quarter of a million shares at $30 by exercising those calls.
MO
If the shorts bought a ton of $25 calls from shareholders (eg hedgefunds and large institutional holders) that expected them to expire worthless and then exercised their right to buy them from these shareholders at $25.00, they could acquire a ton of shares at $25.00 without having to buy them from the Market and seriously impacting the price of shares today.
Nokia ostensibly wanted to combine the cases at the ITC so that they could remain involved in a process that might impact them severely. However, I believe that real reason was that they had planned all along to get the joined proceedings stayed based on their claim of right to arbitration. They didn't believe that the ALJ would separate the cases.
Now that the cases have been separated, they wish to avoid coming back to the ITC and suffer the wrath of the ALJ. They now prefer to monitor the development of the Samsung proceedings and get a reading of the outcome and rush to settle before being called back to the ITC.
MO
I think some major short is buying an insurance premium against a possible settlement before September expiry date.
MO
Jim Lur - I have a suggestion.
If, for the next couple of days, you were to delete all postings about the "Apple Accounting" issues, maybe the fervor to convince each other of the correctness of their point-of-views might die down a little.
Enough is enough!
IDCC was doing quite well in the pre-market today with enthusiasm probably rubbing off from the QCOM/NOKIA settlement: the price reached as high as $21.81.
However in the first 4 minutes after the market opened, approx. 114,000 shares were traded and we were rudely brought back down to $19.97.
Someone does not want the shareprice to get out of hand.
IMHO
Hooray !
Rogers unveils price plans for iPhone service in Canada
Clients must commit to three-year deal
DEREK ABMA CANWEST NEWS SERVICE
Rogers Wireless said yesterday the price of its basic voice-and data combo for iPhones, which become available in Canada on July 11, will start at $60 a month.
Customers must commit themselves to a three-year contract under this and all other plans.
The $60 service provides 150 minutes of voice time with unlimited evenings and weekends, allowance for 75 outgoing text messages and, with all plans, unlimited incoming text messages and voice mail. With this package, customers get 400 megabytes of data. Rogers said this amount will allow a person to transmit up to 200,000 text emails or 3,100 Web pages or 1,360 photo attachments.
The plans come with unlimited Wi-Fi access at Rogers or Fido hot spots.
The highest-end service costs $115 a month and offers 800 minutes of voice, permission to send 300 text messages and two gigabytes of data transmission. This amount of data, Rogers said, is equal to more than one million text emails or 16,000 web pages or 7,000 photo attachments.
Rogers spokeswoman Liz Hamilton said customers will be warned as they approach their data limits. Any data used beyond what’s specified in their plans will cost an extra 50 cents per megabyte for the first 60 megabytes, after which it drops to 3 cents per megabyte.
She said the iPhone itself will cost $199 for the eight-gigabyte model and $299 for the 16-gigabyte version.
Asked about requiring a three year contract, Hamilton said: “Our business model is not unique in Canada. It is a subsidized one that takes many factors into account, including cost of acquisition, cost of customer services, etc., that permits our customers to have very affordable handsets. And, in turn, they sign up for a contract.”
Breaking the contract early will cost a person $20 for each month short they are of the contract’s end, or a maximum of $400.
The iPhone 3G is what Rogers will make available. It is promoted as being twice as fast as the first iPhone launched by Apple Inc. last year.
Rogers said dataless plans for the iPhone, with just voice and basic text, will start at $15 a month.
Bruce Cran, president of the Consumers Association of Canada, urged caution for those considering being among the first legitimate iPhone users in Canada. He said the amount of data allowance for the $60 plan is “very, very little,” and customers could find themselves paying a lot more than they bargained for.
“Spam alone would eat up that amount (of data),” he said.
Cran also said the three-year contract requirement will be an expensive proposition for those who decide shortly after acquiring an iPhone that it’s not for them.
IMO I think it is still options related. There are many who sold naked $25 calls that have expired in the money and were exercised at $25. Now,the price is being manipulated downward to reduce the cost of delivering those shares at $25.
Mike - re: Poutine - it's "French Canadian". So popular here that McDonald's now serves their own version. The best comes from some french fry stands on some highway roadsides.
I think Romuluss is trying to set us up for a disappointment by getting us to believe there should be a Sammy settlement "before" the ASM and over-reacting negatively when it doesn't happen. I, for one am not buying into his B.S.
MHO
Romuluss - maybe they are just "saving their powder" to add more pressure to the short squeeze when it occurs. Wouldn't you like that?
Now, some of the events surrounding March 20th-24th period start to make more sense to me: (I may be wrong about the exact dates of the events and someone may want to correct me)
Nokia's motion to stay or terminate ITC case denied.
IDCC were convinced they had Nokia cornered with no possibility of arbitration - and good progress in settlement talks.
Large block of 457,000 shares traded pre-market March 20th.
IDCC Insiders bought shares March 20th.
Large Call volume noted March 20th.
Price action of March 20th - 24th
8K issued on March 24th to give public chance to get in on opportunity (and to protect the Insider purchasers)
Simonson characterizes IDCC shareholders as overly optimistic - price falls.
Nokia later goes to SDNY to ask that IDCC stop participating against Nokia at ITC based on right to arbitrate.
(My Opinion Only = please be kind in your comments)
The gender is not at issue - the content of the posts is.
Micktoo - You say JD is totally off base wrt to Wanda002. What is your take on her?
Personally, I am leaning towards JD's view but I am open to other interpretations.
IMO the shorts are letting the price "drift" up on low volume and then are selling into the higher prices.
Thanks.
I am curious to examine the timing of the release of this good RMBS news and the corresponding price action.
The shareprice made it's move around 10:10 AM.
RMBS32 on IV posted "What is happening? The stock is flying!" at 10:13 AM
Schwab quoted Bloomberg reporting RMBS win at 10:19AM
captainrocky od IHUB reported the price action in a 10:23 AM posting but didn't know what caused it.
Threejack of IHUB posted a link to Pacer at 11:20 AM - but we don't know when it was first put up on Pacer.
Per a InvestorVillage post, Reuters reported on it at 12:21 PM
Dow Jones reported it at 12:44 PM.
RAMBUS Press Release came out at 1:40 PM
So, when was the earliest public release of the news? The news services and Rambus were very late with their announcements. Was there any possibility of the public getting in on the price action prior to the move?
Can anyone fill in the blanks, for example, when did it first hit Pacer?
Loop - Great post! Thanks.
The Maximum Value Theory for April is $20.00. This represents the price where there is a minimum in-the-money payout for the sum of all April Puts & Calls.
Because the ALJ did not reject IDCC's motion to stay, this seems to spare IDCC from having to immediately move to terminate the ITC action against Nokia as per Judge Batt's order.
Maybe Samsung still can't settle before Nokia without paying a price (e.g. less favorable cross-licensing terms with Nokia, or penalties on Symbian O/S costs), therefore they are going to delay settlement until after Nokia and IDCC sign a deal. MO
Maybe you can buy some puts outside your IRA to hedge against stock dips inside your IRA. Roll up the puts periodically if and when stock moves up a strike. (=collar).
Can anyone shed some light on the critical dates where shorts might need to bring the shareprice down to protect themselves from margin calls e.g. weekends, month-ends, quarters, year-ends?
What is the reality out there for these large margin users?
How to Rotate Pages in Acrobat:
I've discovered while reading the PDF documents that it is possible to rotate the pages clockwise one, two or three times as necessary to set the page upright for reading.
Just right-click on the page and select "Rotate Clockwise".
Happy reading!
The shorts sell them to each other over and over. You don't have to ever deliver them.
I think that the ones that are doing this are big gamblers and are confident that their guess as to the timing of the next major events is right. Who knows, they may have some input from knowledgeable sources.
I would suggest you read some of Jeffree's posts to see how to derive revenue from selling IDCC covered calls, typically by selling LEAPS.
He makes a lot of sense.
My Opinion Only:
I think that, by pre-arrangement between two or more participants, they line up a bunch of bids declining in price typically by $.01.
Then the seller(s) accept this stack of declining bids and lower the price on "light volume".
They might be naked shorts but they can cover by selling back to the other participants. The cost to the group is the "light volume" x the price decline, which they can recoup later by short selling after they let the price rise naturally after expiration.
The option writers can write naked calls knowing that they are in control of the price and can force them to expire worthless.
Today's trading is just a practice exercise to assure themselves that they can control the price at will as they approach the expiration date of March 20th.
IDCC TOP Story on OptionMonster:
"InterDigital (IDCC) showed a different, more bullish picture. Average daily call turnover during the month of February was 2,700 contacts, and today, 10,900 calls changed hands.
April 20 calls traded more than 3,700 contracts, and all but 30 of these calls were purchased on the offer.
Underlying IDCC shares had traded more than 830,000 times by late in the session, above the average daily share turnover of 670,000 over the past 3-months.
This morning’s Wall Street Journal said IDCC might be a big winner in the cellular-phone industry's move to multimedia phones. One way IDCC wins is through the courts. IDCC owns an array of patents on wireless technology that it contends are essential to making the high-speed-data phones that let people watch videos and surf the Web, the WSJ says. Apple (AAPL) and RIM (RIMM) license IDCC patents, but giants Nokia (NOK) and Samsung have resisted.
From this month through November, the US ITC is set to issue a series of opinions and rulings on whether NOK and Samsung have infringed IDCC’s patents. If IDCC wins, and a court decision in the UK augurs in its favor, NOK and Samsung would come under new pressure to sign licensing deals. Fees from those deals might double IDCC’s revenues over the next few years, the story says.
The stock is just off its 52-week low of $16.47, and less than half the 52-week high of $35.25. With all the action and potential upside, investors might consider creating a bull call spread."
By: Medora Lee
Mike, I'm trying to imagine a blackbox trading setup that could accomplish what we have seen today - declining prices on high volume - possibly without substantially increasing short interest.
If Blackbox1 (seller) were to short-sell to Blackbox2 (buyer) at a declining bid setup for part of the day, and then reverse the setup to transfer shares in the other direction again on declining prices, the shorted shares would get covered with the buyback but there would be no increase in short interest.
What are your thoughts on this?
I think that much of the WSJ article information comes from Tom Carpenter's recent update.
MO
Dolphinsmike, personally I really appreciate your analysis of the price movement of IDCC. I would love you to continue. It adds another perspective.
I think that the question can also be expressed as "What are they trying to get the "herd" to do at this time?" Suggestions of a short squeeze coming might stimulate the "herd" to begin buying at the current prices which should cause the price to rise moderately in the short term. This would permit the shorts to sell, once again, into the firmer prices.
Of course, this short-term exercise would have to be completed before the "real" short squeeze happens when a major license is announced.
(My opinion only)
Before the good news arrived, we expected the shorts to target $20.00 on options expiry. Now they may have to be satisified with closing near below $22.50.
I think the move from $22.85 to $22.45 between 2:10PM and 2:35PM was a test run to see if they could do it at will - and it looks like they can.
I think they will try for a $22.50 close today at which price I will try to buy some more shares.
Comment: Hedge Fund purchases Etrade share at beaten down price.
Hedge fund invests $2.55 billion in E*Trade
BRADLEY KEOUN BLOOMBERG NEWS
NEW YORK – E*Trade Financial Corp., the online bank and brokerage, got a $2.55-billion infusion from Citadel Investment Group LLC and ousted its chief executive yesterday after its shares sank almost 80 per cent and customers withdrew cash.
Chief operating officer Jarrett Lilien took over as acting CEO, replacing Mitchell Caplan.
Citadel, the Chicago-based hedge-fund manager run by Kenneth Griffin, will get a 17-percent stake in the company and pay about $800 million, or 27 cents on the dollar, or assetbacked securities with a face value of $3 billion. E*Trade’s shares fell 8.7 per cent in Nasdaq trading.
The company joins lenders Citigroup Inc. and Countrywide Financial Corp. in turning to outside investors for capital amid a plunge in the value of asset-backed securities linked to subprime mortgages. This month, a Citigroup analyst said losses from bad debts might lead E*Trade into bankruptcy, spurring customers to pull out about $6 billion, or 15 per cent of the cash in client accounts at the end of September, Lilien said in an interview.
“The company was getting awfully close to violating their regulatory capital ratios,” said Jaime Peters, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. “They needed an infusion of cash and they needed it fast.”
Caplan’s plan of expanding the company’s banking business by tripling loans backfired, sending E*Trade shares to a five-year low this month.
E*Trade will take a $2.2-billion charge for the sale of the debt to Citadel, wiping out almost five years of profit for the New Yorkbased company.