There's a recent study conducted by Thompson Reuters showing the companies that control the most LTE patents. It included a review of more than 3,100 patents and pending patents related to this technology. The 5 largest holders control about 62% of LTE patents, according to the report:
1-Nokia 18.9%
2-Qualcomm 12.2%
3-Samsung 12.2%
4-Ericsson 11.6%
5-LG 7.5%
Another study conducted by Jefferies & Co. covers what it calls "essential LTE patents." It shows LG at #1 (23% of LTE patents) and Qualcomm at #2 (21%). After that, four companies each held about a 9% share (Motorola Mobility, InterDigital, Nokia, Samsung).
@Value Hiker,
well, you definitely got me thinking about this. I'm already digging into it and asking some people questions about it.
Re: Good transition
tokyogai
4/16/2012 4:06:58 PM
I agree. They will make more money on their chips than licensing for LTE. That is not such a bad thing.
@Scott, Qualcomm can spend time and effort to boost their LTE patent portfolio. But it is hard to regain its glory day during 3G era.
@Value Hiker
those are great points. But LTE will be a long slog and they have plenty of time.
Qualcomm is the 800 pound Gorilla on 3G patents. It collects roughly $5 license fee from every 3G handset sold. Unfortunately, in 4G LTE field, Qualcomm falls behind, has only about 12% share of total LTE patents, falling behind Nokia and Samsung.
Qualcomm has been doing well due to its chipset design, not the patent portfolio any more. On the reverse side, Nokia sucks on its handset business, but it still holds around 19% of all LTE patents. With a market cap around $15B, will Nokia be an acquisition target for big players, like Microsoft or Intel? Anyway, Google paid $12.5B for Motorola handset business last year.
To me Qualcomm has always been a solid company, I have them in my portfolio and for the most part have been pretty happy with them.
Down to $66.06 this morning, Qualcomm shares now trade at 17.5 times the FY12 consensus estimate, below the expected growth rate.
@noreen,
Those kinds of statements make me nervous. I'm selling some stocks.
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