2112 I hope you're right
Don't think for one minute that we settled for the cash value of past infringement. Rather, we settled for the long term relationship with ERICY and the credibility that that relationship gives us in the industry.
Sadly, I know that we did not get the cash value of past infringement. How do we gain credibility by giving ERICY a far better deal than anyone who licensed with us in good faith? It just seems to me that the time to formalize the terms of that ongoing relationship is when you have leverage. We just gave away our leverage for what - a promise that ERICY will do right by us? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Clarence properly pointed out that none of us know what the judge's rulings were on Markman and other issues that may have significantly weakened our case. If that is the case, then I am way off base in my expectations, which was $240MM for past 2G AND a 3G license.
I sincerely hope there is more to this agreement than meets the eye. However if we accept a royalty rate at half of the bottom of our range for ongoing 2G, get pennies on the dollar for old infringement, have stated that we expect 3G rates to be less than 2G, and are betting our 3G future on ERICY being reasonable, then this settlement is very disappointing to me. I'd love to continue to hear thoughts from those who disagree with me. And as I said in an earlier post, even with this settlement and conservative 3G licenses this stock should still double from this level in the not too distant future. I just saw the potential for much, much more.
