InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[blueskywaves]

it will continue to be a judgment call on a case-by-case basis

Yes, judgement calls usually involve quantitative and qualitative assessments.

Litigation sidetracked IDCC for much of the 90s, but they're now poised to grow. In order to grow I think they need to leverage their balance sheet better even though their 24-month prepayment strategy is going to bolster cash reserves substantially in the near term.

For reference, QCOM grew revenues from $108M in 1992 to $387M in 1995 -- or by 260% -- while diluted O/S (unadjusted for splits) grew from 39M in 1992 to 70M in 1995 -- or by 80%.

The opportunities for IDCC are different now, of course, but the importance of financial management remains the same. As you know, QCOM had to change and adapt its business plan several times to blast through the $500M, $1B, $2B and $3B sales milestones. Great financial management was crucial to QCOM's abiity to grow from $108M in 1992 sales to $3B in 2002 sales.