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Final BlackBerry, Qualcomm settlement reaches $940 million

Qualcomm has agreed to pay the full amount on or before May 31.

By Natalie Gagliordi for Between the Lines | May 26, 2017 -- 13:22 GMT (06:22 PDT) | Topic: Tech Industry


BlackBerry revealed Friday that it has reached a final settlement agreement with Qualcomm for $940 million. The chipmaker has agreed to pay the full amount on or before May 31.

The two companies had agreed to arbitrate a contract dispute over whether Qualcomm's royalty cap program applied to payments made by BlackBerry under a licensing deal. The arbitrator determined that BlackBerry had indeed overpaid royalty fees between 2010 and 2015.

Last month, BlackBerry and Qualcomm said they reached an initial arbitration settlement for $814.9 million. In its earnings release in April, Qualcomm said it was out $974 million revenue reductions related to the BlackBerry arbitration decision.

But while Qualcomm's BlackBerry suit is settled, the semiconductor giant remains locked in a bitter dispute with Apple and its contracted suppliers.

In January, Apple filed a suit against Qualcomm accusing the chipmaker of overcharging for its chips and withholding nearly $1 billion in contractual payments. The suit also charges that Qualcomm is "attempting to extort" Apple into obstructing the investigation into Qualcomm's monopolistic practices.

Last month, Apple decided to withhold royalty payments to contract manufacturers until the legal dispute with Qualcomm was resolved. The move delivered a significant blow to Qualcomm's revenue outlook and forced the chipmaker to issue a profit warning to account for the non-payment scenario.

Qualcomm fired back a few weeks later with a breach of contract complaint against Apple suppliers Foxconn, Pegatron Corporation, Wistron Corporation, and Compal Electronics for breaching their license agreements. Qualcomm alleges that Apple "orchestrated the actions of each defendant," and is seeking an order that would require the manufacturers to comply with existing contractual obligations.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/final-blackberry-qualcomm-settlement-reaches-940-million/