Logic dictates you are on the right track when you say it seems they settled for attorney's fees and that is what the market says.
There are countless posts that keep stating "They only got 3mm"
No, they did not only get 3mm.
They are lucky if they got 500K and maybe it was a wash.
On Niro's own web site it states that it takes approx 1 -2.5mm in EXPENSES (that the Plaintiff is responsible for when retaining his firm)to bring a typical patent or royalties case to trial.
Maybe because they settled pre trial it was less than 2.5mm but it was something in that range.
Deduct 20% from the 2.9mm for his scaled settlement fee and you really only have enough left for a day at Tampa Bay Downs and a lap dance at Scores if a few nags you picked won.
Every shred of horse trading sense dictates there HAD to be more to the deal as such a seasoned law firm would never leave cash on the table but the counterpoint to that is the current share price. The market knows..they always do and it seems unlikely they would roll such dangerous dice to make a few short dollars and risk a bombshell Royalties PR and get caught with their pants around their ankles with the PPS in the high teens.
The <cough> acquistion, was a product of dreadful rookie like timing.
Like a hapless mate that comes home drunk on Xmas eve with a crackerjack ring a sprig from the evergreen tree in the backyard.
Had that been announced as an afterthought as part of a moving forward PR a few days later it would have buttresed and bandaged the share slide instead of opening a new vein.
Hail Mary pass hopes lie again in the words of the firms web site:
On average, it costs Niro $1 million to put on a case. He doesn't pay expenses, leaving inventors to find other sources, like patent-holding companies or private equity shops to front those costs -- usually about $2.5 million -- in exchange for a cut of the profits. He makes the money either as a straight 30-40 percent of damages, licensing fees and ROYALTIES, or a graduated arrangement, where as the firm progresses through the litigation, it gets a bigger cut. For example, for pretrial settlement Niro gets 20 percent; for a verdict at trial, 30 percent; for an appeal, 40 percent. Niro also does contingency work for a few corporations, which pay an up-front fee and a small percentage of the postsettlement riches. Contingency cases produce about 95 percent of the firm's roughly $100 million annual revenue. Niro charges his small number of hourly clients, including Alcatel, AccuMed Inc., Illinois Tool Works Inc. and Black & Decker, an hourly rate of $840.
You just KNOW he was in their swinging for Royalties remuneration...that's just simple Law School 101...and that's how HE and HIS FIRM would profit higher. Unless ABB got some sort of leverage in the form of new evidence or unless they won the war of cash attrition where INRA had reached the tipping point where the money on the table was equal to what was owed Niro there should be more to this story.
It's one or the other.
Did that say EIGHT HUNDRED FORTY an hour ???
Anyone know a paralegal with loose lips that works for the law firm ?
AI
