As Eric noted earlier, wireless patent house NTP, which won $612.5 million from Research in Motion (RIMM) a few years back, is back at it today, suing Apple (AAPL) and others for alleged violations of NTP’s patents with their smartphone products.
MKM Partners analyst Pablo Perez-Fernandez this afternoon writes that HTC and Motorola (MOT), which both make phones based on Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system, are threatened with the prospect of “long-term value erosion” given the possibility NTP could seek royalties as high as 5% of average selling prices on their phones. That could undermine the economics HTC and Motorola gain from using Google’s free operating system.
Licenses signed with NTP by RIM and by Nokia (NOK) have validated NTP’s patent claims, writes Perez-Fernandez.
As for RIMM, Perez-Fernandez reiterated a “Buy” rating and $75 price target on the stock.
Perez-Fernandez has no analysis of the situation for Apple.
RIMM shares today are up $3.73, or 7.5%, at $53.13, while Apple is down 83 cents at 257.26, Motorola is down 13 cents, or 2%, at $6.72, while HTC’s Taiwan-based shares fell fractionally earlier in the day.
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