InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[blueskywaves]

Under the terms of the 3/14/2003, Sony/ERICY are contractually obligated to prepay 24 months of royalties in 2Q2003 and 3Q2003. Some have estimated this amount to be around $20M-$25M based on Sony/ERICY's 6%-7% share of the handset market. All in all, IDCC will receive the following amount from Sony/ERICY this year:

 
 PAID-UP ROYALTIES (thru 12/31/02)      $34M 
 INFRASTRUCTURE ROYALTIES                 6M 
 ADVANCE ROYALTIES (24 months)     $20M-$25M 
  
 Total                             $60M-$65M 
 

IDCC will recognize $34M paid-up royalties as revenues in the quarter it received. IDCC will amortize the $6M infrastructure royalty over 4 quarters, or $1.5M per quarter. IDCC will recognize a portion of the $20M-$25M advance royalties as accrued income in 2Q and 3Q, and booked the rest as DEFERRED REVENUE.

Notice something? the ERICY settlement will increase CASH/INVESTMENTS by $60M-$65M this year and will increase the DEFERRED REVENUE account by $16M-$17M this year. The DEFERRED REVENUE account provides additional visibility into IDCC's quarterly revenues. More visibility generally implies higher quality of earnings.

From the press release:

ITC expects to receive aggregate payments of approximately $34 million from Ericsson and Sony Ericsson related to sales of terminal and infrastructure products through December 31, 2002. For periods thereafter through 2006, Sony Ericsson will be obligated to pay ITC a royalty on each licensed product sold. In addition, Sony Ericsson will make non-refundable advance royalty payments to ITC in 2003 covering Sony Ericsson's projected sales in 2003 and 2004. In exchange for such prepayments, Sony Ericsson will be given certain royalty rate discounts. Once this initial prepayment is exhausted, Sony Ericsson can either make additional prepayments (net of related discounts) for twenty-four month periods, or pay royalties at the base rate on sales through 2006. Under terms of its agreement, Ericsson will pay ITC an annual license fee of $6 million for sales of covered infrastructure equipment for each of the years 2003 through 2006.