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teecee, I bought mar 35's in the morning for 15 cents, so I made out so far, i am referring to tuesday, why do you have to lose money to be duped, i think the whole board believed the rumor, i was reading most of the posts and i think that was the impression
i mean u can admit when you are wrong, it is ok, by the way a lot of people on the board were buying yesterday
jimlur is there any way on this board to highlight the names of posters u like , sort of like u could do on raging bull, would make it easier to find the posts u want to read, my only critique of the site is that it is harder to pick out the posts then it was on raging bull
To All Regarding Rumor, I think it is obvious that the rumor was a classic case of pump and dump, while I don't think it changes my opinion of a settlement within the next two weeks, I am disapointed that myself and many of the veterans on this board could get duped by something so obvious
Our first clue should have been the mention of Nokia in a settlement, this was an amateur attempt that got us all, I think I might have been the only poster who posted the possibility of this being a pump and dump scam
I am sure you have seen this before, I mean in reality if it is not posted by a legitimate news organization then it is garbage plain and simple
We are witnessing the dump as we speak, let this be a lesson learned
good luck all
Nieves why is cbsmarketwatch only showing 13,000 shares in afterhours stopping at 5:30, what site are u looking at thanks, by the way i think we are at the point where the stock takes off
This is ending up greatly, could be the real thing, i am sure afterhours and tomorrow will show us with the follow through whether we have hit pay dirt
Could the rumor be an illegal attempt to pump and dump or at this stage and with the heavy volume that does not seem likely
To All: Regarding rumors, some might question the credibility of that rumor
the bottom line is that if you evaluate the whole situation any way you shake it how can anyone see ericy not settling
jimlur has said the volume will show the way, this is true and look at the volume today
but also common sense will show the way, if you just break the situation to the bare essentials you see that ericy can't afford to let this go to trial, and u see that this case will cement idcc in the wireless world
we are about to see the stock go above 50 IMO, good luck
teecee can u post the actual report from bloomberg eom
Nieves actually we are at 639,000 as we speak, your welcome, i think good things are happening over the next 2 weeks
Nieves actually we are at 639,000 as we speak, your welcome, i think good things are happening over the next 2 weeks
JImlur you told us the volume would show us the way, is today's volume an indication of things to come
I think the ERICY price movement does have something to do with a settlement, because everybody knows that most of the time when a case gets resolved both stocks go higher, even the one on the losing end, because now it erases uncertainty
Mickey can I ask if you have been buying any options thanks eom
Imo infinite it will be settled very soon eom
mickey do u still think we are going to 35 before trial, the stock seems to be stalling until news hits, i am sure it can turn around and pick up momentum but i would have thought it would have started by now
OT NIEVES i can't send private messages if you want post your email and i will send u a response
OT FLYNAVY my response to you is at the Raging Bull board, I do ask that you don't respond to my raging bull posts over here and clutter this board, I will add that my post on the ericy board on raging bull makes no mention of this board nor does it even mention bashers and to infer otherwise is not right, thank you for your cooperation
Futures are up big this morning eom
Guys u are missing something, if ericy holds out until very end they will have to pay more, imo they settle this week or next at the latest
Jimlur I just want to leave it as my opinion, I don't want to get into trouble on the board by posting rumors or info from sources, I am confident it will happen before feb 10 and have a hunch it happens this week, now of course I am not trying to pump up the price,
my actions have no effect on price and I am not selling my core until idcc reaches a 1000, and my options all 30 or 35 mar jan or june calls will not have any great value until idcc hits 50 and there is no chance a million posts could accomplish that
i am confident idcc hits minimum of 50 by March, at this point I believe it is not if but when a settlement occurs, again just my opinion, and everybody knows opinions are not worth much, i don't care if people buy or sell because when news hits it won't matter one iota to the stock price who owns and who doesn't
good luck all and let's hope for a little luck for the NY JETS tomorrow
Check previous post for more IDCC media coverage eom
Paying to win: Arbitration decision boon to InterDigital
By:By CARL ROTENBERG, Times Herald Staff January 09, 2003
UPPER MERION - A binding arbitration decision in favor of InterDigital Communications Corp. late last year has clarified its 1996 "most favored licensee" contract with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. of Korea.
The American wireless technology company agreed seven years ago to license its UltraPhone telecommunications products and patents along with its Broadband Code Division Multiple Access air interface technology (B-CDMA) to Samsung for payments of more than $35 million.
The International Court of Arbitration decided Dec. 26 that Samsung's prior royalty credit of $18.7 million for the $35 million contract would be reduced to $6.7 million to account for royalties due on sales of licensed TDMA products sold through the end of 2001.
InterDigital will recognize $500,000 of the Samsung revenue in the last quarter of 2002, company officials said. The Upper Merion company expects to collect the remaining $6.7 million in revenues in the future from Samsung as a result of the arbitration decision.
The royalty dispute with Samsung started sometime after InterDigital signed a similar "most favored licensee" contract in 1999 with rival wireless manufacturer Nokia Corp., said William J. Merritt, the executive vice president and intellectual property/general patent counsel of InterDigital.
"The issue is resolved," said Merritt. "We know the terms under which we'll see revenue from Samsung.
"I'm happy with how the contract is positioned."
InterDigital alleged in its complaint that without the "most favored licensee" contract with Samsung, the Korean manufacturer would owe past due royalties of more than $100 million.
The company had total revenues in 2001 of $52.5 million with net losses of $19.4 million. Year-end figures for 2002 have not been released yet, said Guy Hicks, the spokesman for InterDigital. But the stock price advanced from $9 per share at the beginning of 2002 to $16.20 earlier this week.
The company has benefited from a steady stream of patent approvals in wireless technology. Between 1996 and 2001, the company had 116 patents approved in the U.S. In fact, Inc. magazine included InterDigitial in its "Innovation 50" list of America's 50 most inventive firms.
At the same time, InterDigital, with 300 workers worldwide, was granted more than 400 patent "families" around the world.
The company has also developed 2G and 3G standards that have been adopted by worldwide standards organizations. That has made it simpler for InterDigital to profit from its patents and to license its electronic innovations, Merritt said.
"We have created very fundamental innovations," he said.
Carl Rotenberg can be reached at crotenberg@timesherald.com or 610-272-2500, ext. 350
In my opinion there is a settlement this week eom
Does anybody find it odd that the ask price on march 35 calls rose 35 cents to 50 cents in one day, yet the mar 30 calls remains 15 cents, i just found this odd, any thoughts
So Ranger it could be tied to a settlement right eom
longs whats up with the mar 35 calls ask price of 50 cents, yesterday it was 15 cents, anything to be read into this or is it just an anomaly
ranger are these scheduled pacer dates, any significance to tonight
Jimlur, I know you don't like to get into the daily moves of the stock price, but any thoughts on why we have not been able to push out of our current range
Thanks Bob Z. for the reply eom
wilco with all due respect losing twenty cents is hardly getting crushed, just have patience and u will be rewarded
Danny thanks we are making a comeback right now on heavy volume
good luck
OT this is why the site rules, the jail feature, someone told me people like donn could post here and that is why i was down on paying but because u can stop these posters I think the site is worth the money, this seems to be the only place for serious investors, sorry for off topic but just had to give the site a promotion after downing it early on
good luck
we are down like 50 cents and u would think it was the end of the world, this is probably a stupid reaction by traders to the insider selling, like i said the selling has nothing to do with ericy case which will make or break stock in short term
but as to why they are selling, could be to keep stock price down before result for whatever reasons, maybe for others to buy in cheap, i don't know but either way it is killing the movement right now
jai if we had bad trial news the stock would have been down a lot more than 83 cents
Why sell before the trial, why not wait until after, I don't know, but the result of this ericy situation will make or break the stock in the short term, long term we are collecting on 3g regardless
these insider sales have nothing to do with ericy situation, we have to wait for news on that to see whether we are going to 50 or to 5, so until we find out the resolution, the sales are irrelevant
OT: Danny I did not ask for a grade either
good luck
Danny you misunderstood, I was asking whether people who don't pay will go down to 10 or 5 posts allowed, this is what will make my decision easier, i don't remember asking anyone else for any help
Monday, September 23, 2002
IN-HOUSE COUNSEL
Busy signals
Name and title: Lawrence F. Lyles, in-house counsel at Ericsson Inc.
Title: Vice president, general counsel and secretary
Age: 49
Organization: Plano, Texas-based Ericsson Inc. is the American subsidiary of the Swedish firm, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, the world's leading supplier of equipment used to build telecom networks for voice and data communications. It dominates the mobile phone equipment business in particular. About 40% of all mobile calls pass through Ericsson systems. Its U.S. clients include AT&T Wireless, Cingular and VoiceStream. The company started out as a modest telegraph repair shop in 1876, the same year the telephone was invented. The company has 76,221 employees worldwide, including 6,776 in the United States and reported a net loss of $2.3 billion in 2001.
Legal department: Lyles oversees 13 in-house attorneys: two intellectual property rights lawyers in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and 11 others in Plano, where Lyles is also based. The Plano staff includes five business attorneys who deal with customer contracts and mergers and acquisitions; three IP lawyers who do patent and licensing work; two litigation attorneys; and an employment lawyer. The department includes 12 paralegals and seven administrative assistants and has a budget of $7.24 million this year.
His responsibilities: Lyles spends much of his time implementing the U.S. segment of transactions made by the parent company. "We may have an acquisition or divestiture that has some significant component in the U.S. that requires subsequent negotiations in the U.S.," he says. He also handles disputes involving liabilities the company has retained after the sales of some of its businesses, such as environmental liability. In addition, Lyles administers Ericsson Inc.'s pension and 401(k) plans and takes care of all U.S. corporate legal affairs, including maintaining Ericsson's corporate entities. He advises management on issues such as conflicts of interest, insider trading, sexual harassment and employment discrimination as well.
Biggest challenge: The most difficult part of Lyles' job is trying to coordinate among the competing interests within his multinational corporation.
"Ericsson is a very large and complex company, and in any particular transaction or situation there are likely to be quite a few individuals in Ericsson representing different constituencies that need to be consulted with.... Everybody has their own set of issuesÉ.I have to understand their views andÉchart the appropriate course for the company. Understanding all those different constituencies is a real challenge sometimes," he says. For example, a transaction by the parent company in Sweden may create unanticipated risks in the United States. "I have to work that through," he says.
Telecom meltdown: Since the tech market bubble burst, Ericsson stock has fallen from an all-time high of $25.62 on March 3, 2000, to a nine-year low of 52 cents on Sept. 18, 2002, and Ericsson Inc. has cut 4,760 employees from its work force through layoffs, outsourcing and spinoffs. The in-house employment attorney made sure the layoffs were handled in a way that minimized the company's exposure to litigation and that they also complied with federal regulations covering significant layoffs. The in-house business lawyers helped negotiate the terms of the transfers of Ericsson employees to new enterprises as part of the company's agreements to outsource certain operations.
Rights offering: The company issued roughly 7.9 billion new stock shares for existing shareholders to buy in August, and Ericsson Inc. attorneys had to find a way to distribute the purchase rights to its own employees, whose 401(k) plans are prohibited from holding them by Department of Labor regulations. Lyles and his staff came up with a solution. The 401(k) plan trustee sold the employees' rights on the open market, then used the proceeds to buy them new shares. The company raised roughly $3.2 billion from the offering, which will strengthen its balance sheet and protect its leadership position in the market during these difficult times.
Litigation: Ericsson Inc. currently has about three dozen pieces of litigation, with intellectual property rights cases forming the largest category. Ericsson is usually the defendant in such cases. It also has a handful of class actions seeking millions of headsets from Ericsson to diminish the health risks its cellphones allegedly pose. The company says the plaintiffs can buy their own headsets. Ericsson subsequently began including headsets with the cellphones it sells, however, since that's what consumers want now, Lyles says. The rest of the company's litigation involves commercial or employment disputes.
The case most potentially damaging to Ericsson is a patent infringement lawsuit filed against it in 1993 by InterDigital Technologies, based in King of Prussia, Pa. InterDigital wants Ericsson to pay it royalties on sales of Ericsson cellphones and systems, which InterDigital claims use its technology.
The case was on hold for two years while InterDigital Technologies had its patents reissued after having lost a similar lawsuit against Motorola Inc. in March 1995. Ericsson denies any wrongdoing. The trial is set to begin Feb. 10, 2003, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, in Dallas.
Meanwhile, the parties have been participating in court-ordered mediation administered by a female rabbi since last year. The judge put the case proceedings under seal, so neither party can discuss it. One of Ericsson's litigation attorneys is overseeing the work of lead outside counsel McKool Smith, a Dallas-based firm. "My involvement has been generally more indirect," Lyles says. "I'm not a litigator. I'm a transaction lawyer."
Outside counsel: Ericsson Inc. plans to spend roughly $22.5 million on outside counsel this year. About two-thirds of that total, $14.85 million, is for litigation. Four Dallas law firms earn the big bucks to litigate on behalf of Ericsson Inc.: Jenkens & Gilchrist, which does the bulk of its intellectual property litigation; Jackson Walker; Hughes & Luce; and McKool Smith. Hughes & Luce also helps with business and transactional matters, mainly bankruptcy and insolvency issues, as does Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld's Dallas office.
Route to top: Lyles initially resisted becoming a lawyer, as his father and grandfather had been. After graduating from Washington and Lee University in 1975, he started a doctoral program in organizational psychology at the University of Michigan, only to drop out one year later. He realized he'd make a better lawyer than a psychologist and enrolled in the University of Texas School of Law, graduating in 1981. He became a corporate lawyer, first at the former Dallas firm of Johnson, Bromberg and Leeds, and then at Akin Gump's Dallas office. After five years of law firm life, he grew restless and responded to a blind ad in the Dallas Morning News that had been placed by Ericsson Inc. The company had only one lawyer in the United States at the time, and Lyles was hired to be its second. He's worked at the Texas headquarters for his entire time at Ericsson except for the year he spent at the home office in Stockholm, Sweden, in the mid-1990s. Perhaps the higher-ups were taking a closer look at him, because Lyles was named the new general counsel in 1997, when the previous general counsel returned to his native Sweden. "I never would in my wildest dreams have predicted where the job has taken me," he says.
Last book read: Atonement, by Ian McEwan.
My previous post is one example of special master favoring interdigital, in that article it says this, this is just one of many articles that have stated the same thing, now where they got it from i don't know, but it is an impartial newspaper from what i know, it has been widely reported that the report favored interdigital
Dallas patent fight targets Ericsson Inc.
Jeremy Feiler and Jeff Bounds Staff Writers
PLANO -- An 8-year patent battle in Dallas pitting InterDigital Communications Corp. against one of the world's biggest cellphone makers, Ericsson Inc., has moved into mediation and may be headed to eventual settlement.
Money Center Updated:
January 8, 2003
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Some InterDigital investors hope the result could lead to more than $1 billion in damages, adding about $17 a share to a stock whose shares now are worth around $7. That, however, is a stretch by most analysts' accounts, who believe a settlement would be closer to $100 million or so.
The case centers on digital cellphone technology developed in the early 1990s by InterDigital, a King of Prussia, Pa., wireless technology developer. In September 1993, InterDigital claimed in a lawsuit that Sweden-based Ericsson, which has its U.S. headquarters in Plano, infringed on eight of its patents.
As a result, InterDigital is demanding that Ericsson pay it royalties on those patents. Ericsson, it alleges, made far more cellphones based on InterDigital's patents than anyone else in the world.
InterDigital is asking for about 5% of Ericsson's handset sales and 3.5% of its infrastructure sales going back to the early 1990s.
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Were InterDigital to achieve that objective, the damages would be huge and devastating to Ericsson. Last year alone, about 67% of Ericsson's sales, or $19.5 billion, came from infrastructure, while handset sales accounted for nearly 19.3%, or $5.6 billion.
While infrastructure sales will be down in 2001, those systems "comprise about four out of five dollars coming in the door," says Todd Bernier, a stock analyst at Morningstar. "It's the reason to buy Ericsson."
Ericsson denies it has done anything wrong and has countersued, alleging InterDigital hasn't invented anything new. A European appeals court upheld InterDigital's patents in 1998.
Neither party would discuss the case.
"We are under an obligation of complete confidentiality and are not in a position to talk about any events that have occurred recently," said Howard Goldberg, InterDigital's CEO. "We are looking forward to the day that there is closure on this event one way or another. We feel very comfortable with our position."
All the proceedings, which have taken place in a federal court in Dallas, have been sealed except for a special master's final report, which InterDigital (Nasdaq: IDCC) released in September 2000. The report appeared to indicate the suit was going in InterDigital's favor.
Now the two parties are engaged in mediation, administered by a female rabbi with a track record of success in ending long-standing legal disputes.
The U.S. Patent Office reaffirmed InterDigital's patents in proceedings that, at one point, put the litigation on hold for nearly two years. Another big wireless company, Qualcomm, used the same tactic in a 1999 patent case against Ericsson, forcing the company into an out-of-court settlement.
"Intuitively, I think they're going to settle. There's definite interest in settling by both parties," said Joel Achramowicz, a managing director of research in Pennsylvani-based PMG Capital's San Francisco office, who rates InterDigital a "buy."
He believes a settlement would lie in the $100 million range, and pointed to InterDigital's $70 million settlement deal in a similar case against cellphone maker Nokia in 1998.
Swatting a fly
Bernier, the Morningstar analyst, says a settlement in that range would be do-able for Ericsson, despite a series of financial problems it has experienced in the last year.
The company, which employs around 2,300 in the Metroplex, has announced plans to cut 20,000 jobs this year, and analysts expect more cuts in the wake of what they believe was a horrid third quarter. Ericsson is merging its phone operations into a joint venture with Sony Corp. of Japan.
Ericsson's American Depositary Receipts, which trade on Nasdaq under the symbol "ERICY," were selling for $3.56 Wednesday, down 78% from their 52-week high of $16.26.
But "you're still talking about a huge company," Bernier says. "Seventy million dollars to $100 million is a rounding error for this company. ... Sometimes you've got to ruin some paper to swat a fly."
According to some observers, InterDigital may accept less for a chance to work with Ericsson as a development partner, which could prove a lot more valuable to it over time. Any chance of Ericsson attempting a hostile takeover to avoid paying damages also has been discounted. Such an attempt could activate InterDigital's $250 per share "poison pill," in which Ericsson would have to pay InterDigital shareholders $13.9 billion, unless it could force a shareholder vote in its favor.
Meantime, another analyst who follows InterDigital believes a multibillion-dollar settlement "is outside the range of probable scenarios. I don't think that number's in the ballpark," said Tom Carpenter, senior technology analyst with Hilliard Lyons, a Louisville, Ky.-based investment bank who also rates InterDigital at "buy." "There's multiple scenarios on what could happen. I suspect both parties want to give mediation a shot."
A resolution could lead to an agreement to license InterDigital's technology going forward, Carpenter said, though it probably would include payment for past infringement.
Ericsson reportedly offered InterDigital $100 million to settle several years ago, but the Pennsylvania company declined. With the rapid rise in cellphone use and owed royalties, a court decision or settlement now could lead to damages several times that amount, observers believe.
According to some investors, Ericsson, in a 1999 restructuring, dismissed a number of executives who could substantiate claims of conspiracy by Ericsson and others to infringe on InterDigital's patents. They also claim that InterDigital's lawyers identified the executives and took their depositions.
Telco's `Rodney Dangerfield'
When it's not in court, InterDigital has been working to become a leading developer of "third-generation," or 3G, broadband cellphone technology to transform cellphones into all-purpose remote controls.
"As we look at the consequences of the shakeout in the marketplace, such as cutting research and development, we see great opportunity for InterDigital," Goldberg, the CEO, said.
Some people don't put much stock in that assertion -- to the distress of current shareholders.
"InterDigital is the Rodney Dangerfield of telecommunications stocks," says David T. DeWitt, president and research manager of DeWitt Investment Research & Management Inc. in Wayne, Pa., which holds 700,000 InterDigital shares worth about $4.78 million and has invested in the company since 1990.
InterDigital's propensity to file patent suits has also created skepticism about the company in investment circles. "InterDigital tends to sue a lot of companies. They generally get paid off to go away," says Brian Modoff, a wireless-equipment analyst at Deutsche Bank that follows Ericsson.
InterDigital hasn't won every time it's gone to court.
It lost a patent-infringement lawuit in March 1995 against Motorola Inc., for example. In that suit, Motorola's lawyers showed an InterDigital mock-up of a late 1980s cellphone, asking the jury to compare the technology based on the cellphone's appearance rather than its circuits. The jury decided nothing new had been invented.
Shortly after that trial, patent-infringement cases were taken out of juries' hands and placed before experts called "special masters." Once the expert deems an idea patentable and finds that an infringement occurred, he or she makes a recommendation to the federal judge, who then tells the jury whether the patents in question are valid and deals with other technical issues. The jury then determines damages.
InterDigital, meanwhile, wants to deter short-term investors who look for public companies that could benefit from a major patent-lawsuit victory of the sort that occurred 121 years ago.
What happened then? The shares of American Bell Telephone Co. soared from $50 to $1,000 on the New York Stock Exchange in one week in 1880, turning Alexander Graham Bell and his financial backers into overnight millionaires.
The cause? Telegraph communications titan Western Union Co. withdrew its legal challenge to American Bell's telephone patent.
Contact DBJ writer Jeff Bounds at jbounds@bizjournals.com or (214) 706-7122. Feiler, a staff writer at the Philadelphia Business Journal, an affiliated publication, can be reached at jfeiler@bizjournals.com.
© 2001 American City Business Journals Inc.
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