The legal victory of Qualcomm Inc. in a battle with high stakes with the US government brings up the opportunity for the smartphone chip giant to enjoy a period of relative calm and growth driven by increasing appetite for new 5G handsets.
The company stems from what, by most industry standards, is an unusually tumultuous period of five years. It has faced anti-trust allegations, legal battles with its biggest clients, US and China trade tensions, an activist shareholder pleading for the company to split and a $ 117 billion hostile takeover bid. A higher court decision Tuesday to unleash an anti-trust ruling against the company resolved one of its latest proposed issues and sent shares near a record high.
Instead of being scandalized, the company in San Diego, California, escapes the unrest for the most part. It has also become a sort of national champion in the Trump administration’s competition with China over technology, particularly in superfast 5G networks.
The appeal’s verdict was “the last domino to fall” after five years of uncertainty and fears for shareholders, said Stacy Rasgon, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein & Co. The company can now move forward from a more stable position, he said.
Qualcomm executives see the company, a leading supplier of 5G-powered chips, as poised to take advantage of a broader global adoption of the technology, as well as new product launches such as Apple’s first 5G iPhone Inc., which comes before the end of the year. Last month, Qualcomm Chief Executive Steve Mollenkopf said the company expects sales of 5G handsets are likely to come in the high end of a projection of between 175 million to 225 million units this year.
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