Motorola Inc. could have plans to build a disposable mobile phone through a new licensing deal with disposable phone company Hop-On.
Officials for neither Motorola nor Hop-On were immediately available for comment.
According to a short news release from Hop-On, Motorola licensed “certain essential cellular patents covering the GSM, GPRS and CDMA standards” from Hop-On. No other details were released.
Hop-On’s stock jumped more than 62 percent after the news. However, the increase totaled only about 7 cents per share as Hop-On’s stock was trading at about 19 cents after the news.
Interestingly, Hop-On just last week signed licensing deals with Lucent Technologies Inc. and Ericsson. Under Hop-On’s deal with Ericsson, Hop-On said it will pay Ericsson running royalties for its GSM and GPRS patents.
Mysteries have long surrounded disposable mobile-phone maker Hop-On. The company has for years promised to sell disposable mobile phones through a variety of retail outlets, but so far has sold only a small batch through several Walgreens stores in Southern California. Hop-On claims several sales deals are pending.
