Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

[khemara_qc]

Commentary: will the BroadQual Kid ride out?


Peter Clarke
EE Times
(05/20/2005 1:20 PM EDT)

http://www.eet.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163106102

LONDON — Scott McGregor is just over five months into his job as president and chief executive officer at Broadcom Corp., having joined shortly after leaving Philips Semiconductors. He's got his feet under the desk and presumably now feels ready for a fight.
The law suits filed against Qualcomm Inc., announced Thursday (May 19), certainly look like a major legal move. All technology-based companies are protective of their intellectual property but watching such companies over many years has shown me that there are times to turn a blind-eye to competitors' actions and grow the market together, there are times not to have patents tested, and there are times — perhaps when a market is stagnant or changing its nature — when companies exert their right to let their patents and their lawyers do the talking.

Both Broadcom and Qualcomm have gone to court before over intellectual property but this could turn into a titanic struggle between two evenly-matched protagonists to see who is first among two similar and complementary fabless chip companies.

Broadcom has a broadband background, albeit one developed originally over wired links. It has been taking broadband communications wireless. Qualcomm has wireless background and has been taking communications bandwidth broader.

Both companies have got used to being the leader in their particular areas — which are becoming one. Suddenly it looks like this town ain't big enough for the both of them.

And as in a gunfight in the Wild West, Broadcom has drawn first. It remains to be seen whether the company will draw first blood. There is one solution not allowed for in any Western movie I have seen; that they shake hands and ride off into the sunset astride a single horse as the BroadQual Kid.