You are currently viewing SemiWiki as a guest which gives you limited access to the site. To view blog comments and experience other SemiWiki features you must be a registered member. Registration is fast, simple, and absolutely free so please, join our community today!
If you have never been deposed you should know that this is something Tim Cook will not forget when signing future supplier contracts. In my opinion the Apple / Qualcomm divorce is inevitable.
Tim Cook is set to be deposed later this year as Apple’s battle with Qualcomm continues. As outlined in a report from Bloomberg, Cook will be deposed on June 27th… Bloomberg says that the suit in question accuses Apple of “lying to regulators in order to spur investigations of Qualcomm. Apple had filed complaint over chip royalties.” The deposition will almost certainly be private.
That's almost laughable, Daniel. As documented by Bloomberg, Tim Cook convinced Samsung's Lee at a Sun Valley conference, that Samsung and Apple should make regulatory complaints against QTL to the KFTC and other regulatory bodies, to pressure QTL's royalty rates together. Lee has since gotten into criminal bribery trouble, and recently Samsung has made patent peace with QTL. That leaves Tim all alone, in his brutal assault on Qualcomm.
I thought you might have noticed that FTC Commissioner Olhausen yesterday appointed as the commission's chief lawyer, a man who has publicly derided the FTC case against Qualcomm. Once the new commission is constituted, there's a good chance Tim's FTC instigated lawsuit will be voluntarily withdrawn.
Tim started this war, and weakened Qualcomm to the point that Hock Tan was begging to steal the company. Apple has a weak position legally, and absolutely no meritorious position morally. Qualcomm doesn't care about losing the discrete modem business to Intel. But Apple may find it hard to sustain a business model that overcharges for lagging modem technology, as we transition to 5G.
It's a toxic and abusive relationship, but it was Apple that made it so.
That might be convincing except for the detail that HOW many countries now have fined QC for one infraction or another?
There's EU, China, South Korea, just off the top of my head. Those were ALL "legally weak and meretricious morally"?
There is no doubt that China started the parade, and forced lower royalties for domestic SEPs as the "privilege" of doing business there. But the NDRC Remediation Plan preserved device level royalties, and the licensees who intended to peddle their wares globally, were free to negotiate a higher royalty. Non-SEP were not governed by the Plan, so access to those was likewise left open to negotiation.
Your point about other protectionist and kleptocratic regulators pinching a billion here and there, is well taken. But each of those has Apple's hand on the controls. The USFTC lawsuit on the way out the door days before Inauguration, was Obama's parting gift to Tim. Just read Acting Commissioner Olhausen's strong dissent, to understand how flimsy and political the USFTC case is. With a newly constituted FTC coming soon, and a new chief counsel who believes the case lacks legal and factual merit, a vote to withdraw seems likely. The CFIUS veto of Broadcom's ploy speaks volumes about the national security imperative to protect U.S. 5G IP, and no one is a greater contributor than Qualcomm.
The political winds have shifted, and Apple is on the wrong side.
