Apple Inc (AAPL)

[DiscoverGold]

Apple Slumps as China Court Grants Injunction Banning iPhone Sales
By: The Street | December 10, 2018

Apple shares tumbled Monday after a court in China granted an injunction that would limit the sale of iPhones into the world's biggest smartphone market.

Apple Inc. (AAPL - Get Report) shares tumbled Monday after a court in China granted an injunction that would limit the sale of iPhones into the world's biggest smartphone market.

Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM - Get Report) , which is locked in a series of patent disputes with Apple, said the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court order bans the sale of iPhone 6, iPhone6 S, iPhone 7, iPhone 7-plus, and iPhone 8 and iPhone X models models in China and order four China-based Apple subsidiaries to cease infringing on Qualcomm patents.

"Qualcomm's effort to ban our products is another desperate move by a company whose illegal practices are under investigation by regulators around the world," Apple said in a statement. "All iPhone models remain available for our customers in China."

Apple shares were marked 2% lower in pre-market trading, indicating an opening bell price of $165.15 each, the lowest since April 2017 and some 28.8% from its October 3 peak. Qualcomm shares were marked 2.8% higher at $57.55 each.

Apple opted to dump Qualcomm chips from its new iPhone suite amid a long-running legal dispute over patents and imports, one of which is currently being argued before the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Qualcomm is also suffering from a wane in global smartphone demand, which is affecting first quarter shipments of its Snapdragon MSM chips. Qualcomm sees MSM units deliveries of around 185 million units, a figure that missed most analysts' forecasts.

"In fiscal 2019, we expect relatively flat global handset average selling prices and low to mid-single-digit percentage handset sales growth year over year, with strength coming from the emerging regions, providing solid end market trends for (Qualcomm's licensing business) once the licensing disputes are resolved," CFO George Davis told investors last month.

"The combined impact of Apple instructing their contract manufacturers to stop paying their contracted royalty payments and Apple's decision to use a competitor's modem for their latest device has had a significant impact to our financial performance," CEO Steven Mollenkopf said at the time. "Notably, over 50% of the expected fiscal 2019 headwind related to Apple is reflected in our first fiscal quarter guidance and impacts our QCT business. As we progress through the year, this will become less impactful to our quarterly results."

Read More »»»

• DiscoverGold