Bluesky re IDCC's financial condition in 1998. I have to disagree with your assessment of IDCC's financial condition in that year when you said:
..."Excuse me, but IDCC was a financial basketcase in 1998 before the Nokia deal in early 1999."
IDCC had its best licensing year ever in 1998 with a total licensing/royalty revenue of $92.5m. This revenue was virtually all received in cash during 1998. There were new licenses and cash advances by Kyocera $27m, Toshiba $15m, Sharp $6m, Denso $20m, and Alcatel $5m. Sanyo and Hitachi/Kokasai revised their earlier licenses in 1998 with a total of $15m. IDCC also recorded $3m royalty from Samsung and $1.5m recurring royalty in 1998.