InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[F6]

Joel -- exactly! -- the pre-existing shareholders of the acquiror would realize the great bulk of the full value of IDCC's matured business over and above the takeover price -- INSTEAD of and IN PLACE of IDCC's current longs, who would end up holding only a small piece of the acquiror, whose market cap in turn, even with IDCC folded in, would NOT have any chance of anywhere near the market cap appreciation potential percentage-wise after the takeover as the market cap of a continuingly independent matured IDCC would ultimately have had beyond the takeover price (not to mention that after the takeover the former IDCC shareholders who continued to hold the acquiror's shares could very well see the value of those shares actually dragged DOWN by the results of the acquiror's pre-existing non-IDCC business following the takeover, even if and as the former IDCC business folded into the acquiror goes great guns -- the landscape of takeover history is literally littered with such cases)

sure, if somebody comes along and offers $250/share (or some similarly HUGE premium over the current share price) right now or sometime soon, what the heck -- but back here on Planet Earth, where that just AIN'T gonna happen, I find it not only very easy but indeed imperative to reject out-of-hand ANY near-term deal, sight unseen or otherwise -- right now IDCC's longs own 100% of IDCC's ultimate market cap upside; following a takeover they would only indirectly hold a small percentage stake in that upside, buried in the already fully-valued market cap of a much larger, already-matured company -- NO THANKS

I should note that key to the foregoing is my opinion that IDCC in no way NEEDS to be bought ought in order for it to be able to continue executing on its business plan -- if I felt otherwise, it would of course alter my perspective significantly

and note that I am not addressing an acquisition by IDCC of, or a 'merger of equals' of IDCC with, another company with a complementary business that has its own market cap appreciation potential as an independent company that is similar to the market cap appreciation potential that IDCC has on its own -- I think that THAT type of deal, in theory, could be a good thing; I would evaluate any such proposed deal with an open mind