The European Commission will expedite an investigation of charges against Qualcomm Inc. by six leading wireless companies that the chip and licensing company has violated antitrust rules.The EC may dismiss the complaint if it finds no merit, it could settle the matter with Qualcomm...
Motorola Inc. is shifting its long-term, 3G-chip business away from Qualcomm Inc. in favor of Texas Instruments Inc., leading one analyst last week to downgrade his short-term rating on Qualcomm from "buy" to "neutral."A Motorola spokeswoman confirmed that the company would use Qualcomm "opportunistically"...
YOU CAN'T HAVE A HOLIDAY PARTY without a potent punch bowl for all comers.The news from last week: Some of the latest models of 3G handsets will indeed appear in the United States in time for the retail party just getting under way.Specifically, the...
Qualcomm Inc. can exhale now, and so can a number of its key customers. Holiday sales of imported 3G phones that had been banned by a federal agency can proceed. A ban on the importation of new 3G handsets containing Qualcomm chips will be...
Motorola Inc. has shifted its 3G chip business away from Qualcomm Inc. in favor of Texas Instruments Inc. and Freescale Inc., according to analyst Mark McKechnie. "We believe Motorola's decision was purely business," McKechnie wrote in a note to investors yesterday. "Our checks reveal...
Broadcom Corp. will proceed with an antitrust action against Qualcomm Corp. over deceptive conduct before a standards-setting body after an appeals court reversed a lower court that had dismissed its claims. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit yesterday ruled that the...
THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM-promoted by the WiMAX Forum and confirmed to a degree by at least two independent market research firms-is that no one company owns a potentially disabling amount of intellectual property in WiMAX technology. The implication is that the road ahead for the...
Who says you can't buy influence? Or at least attempt to.During the first six months of this year, the communications-electronics sector spent big money attempting to curry favor from elected officials on topics ranging from trade disputes to the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction.According...
AS THE 3G MARKET HEATS UP, so has the level of litigation among industry players, exemplified by longrunning headlines involving the Goliaths and the Davids in wireless.The underlying disputes that have generated the current level of litigation may be few, but the number of...
Qualcomm Inc. clarified last week that its former general counsel, Lou Lupin, is taking a personal leave and is not resigning from the company.Qualcomm had issued a terse press release last Monday stating that Lupin had resigned his position as general counsel, which is...
The W-CDMA baseband chip business is morphing in real time, as various market pressures push and pull the players to partner, diversify their customer base or pursue less-demanding technologies.Data from Forward Concepts (see chart) shows that last year Texas Instruments Inc. was the global...
Nokia Corp. fired yet another salvo at Qualcomm Inc., filing a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission alleging Qualcomm is infringing on five of its patents. The news serves to widen the gulf between the two companies as each seeks to gain leverage...
Qualcomm Inc. is keeping the reasons for the resignation of its general counsel, announced today, close to its vest. No reasons were given for General Counsel Lou Lupin's resignation in the terse announcement. In a press release, the San Diego-based chip vendor and IP...
It's been all quiet on the Nokia Corp.- Qualcomm Inc. front for months-only the two parties really know whether minions in suits and toting bulging briefcases are actually meeting on a cross-licensing agreement and whether either's lawyers ever actually shout in frustration.Shouting would be...
The president last week declined to veto his trade office's ban on new 3G handsets containing a patent-infringing Qualcomm Inc. chip, sending the vendor back to court to pursue new means to end the ban.Qualcomm filed a request on Aug. 8 in the Court...
WHEN A BEHEMOTH SHAKES ITS TAIL, some rise, some fall. The behemoth benefits.That appears to be the upshot of Nokia Corp.'s announcement last week that it had selected four main chipset suppliers for future business. The move boosted some fortunes and cast off others,...
Welcome to our Friday feature, Week in Review. Every Friday, RCR Wireless News will run through the major events of the past week, outlining what happened and speculating on what to look for in the coming weeks. Check below for news about carriers, handset...
Nokia Corp. is accelerating its research-and-development efforts in software to enable mobile Internet services while scaling back on research and development in chip-based radio technology. In tandem with this strategy, the Finnish company will pursue multiple sources for its chipsets, many bearing its royalty-producing,...
The president passed and Qualcomm Inc. is heading to court. A 60-day window closed yesterday for a presidential veto of the U.S. International Trade Commission's June 7 ban on the importation of new 3G handsets containing Qualcomm Inc.'s chips. Now, the company will...
Great results are great, except if you can't count on repeating them.Thus when a company posts big jumps in revenue, profit and unit shipments and raises guidance for the year, but both the CEO and president preface their remarks to analysts by delivering nearly...
Qualcomm Inc. can chew gum while swatting at nemeses who hover over its business model, if yesterday's financial results are any indication. But the chip vendor acknowledged that it had won and lost in various legal matters during the quarter. For its fiscal third-quarter...
The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.Carrier --Standard & Poor's Ratings Services revised its outlook on AT&T Inc. to stable from negative and affirmed its ratings.--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services revised...
"Serenity now!" yelled the character George Costanza in one episode of the 1990s sitcom, "Seinfeld."Costanza's anguished cry underscored the unbridgeable gap between his desperate need for serenity and the angst that gripped his soul.A roughly analogous gap may yawn between the public serenity of...
Covering the Hatfields' and the McCoys' blood feud might be easier than sifting through the conflicting claims between Broadcom Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. over patent rights and competitive issues.The two chip vendors' public rhetoric continued to heat up last week, even as the companies...
