Bill was asked by Ron whether the companies that are currently in litigation could be the major LTE license they expect to sign, in what appears to be, the short term. Bill said no, because IDCC would want to couple both 3G and 4G together so someone who currently does not have a 3G license would not be a suspect.
Then who is it? And why has Ron brought this up again, not just in an earlier report but in the call today. Obviously he was given privy to this information and he is asking management about it which management is not denying nor downplaying.
The 3G majors with current licenses are Samsung, RIM, HTC and Apple. It has to be one of these four. Maybe HTC or RIM but they're more likely to be the upfront payment talked about and expected as they likely were the two prepayments back in the fall of 2009. If not one of them, therefore, maybe it's Apple.
Ron asked about Apple in the preceding question and Bill actually added more color about Apple implying that opportunities exist with Apple for additional license opportunities. Is this the iPad? Is this LTE? Does this coincide with LTE releases by Apple in the short term (ie. iPhone 5). For the sake of Bill and his job security, Apple had better not be licensed for LTE. It makes no sense that in mid-2007 InterDigital would license their entire patent portfolio to Apple, covering not just 3G but 4G and beyond for 7 years (!). They hadn't and haven't done that with anybody. The length of the deal itself was not comparable to others and they have never acknowledged Apple as being an LTE licensee. I also can't believe that Steve Jobs, who Bill has said was active in the wording of the initial release, pulled a Jedi mind trick and forced Bill to sign everything over to him. No matter what your thoughts about management, it makes no common sense to give away the farm. Also, let's not forget, Bill, Terry and Janet opened their wallets, not for charity earlier this year, at higher prices, at the conclusion of the initial SA and bought a lot, hundreds of thousands of $ of shares ... there is definitely smoke here ... It had better be Apple. Fuck it had better be Apple. Bill, Janet, Terry bought for a reason. Bill went out of the way to talk about opportunities with Apple. Bill did not marginalize the major LTE license question by Ron. Fuck it had better be Apple.
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