Sanyo Electric has reached a basic agreement with Kyocera to explore selling its mobile phone business. Kyocera has priority negotiating rights for the mobile business and both companies will assess the value of the unit and work towards a sales agreement. Sanyo has decided to refocus its business following losses at its mobile unit. The sale would comprise the the entire mobile manufacturing business (excluding Tottori Sanyo Electric and Telecom Sanyo), PHS handset and base station business (which is becoming a WiMAX business). Sales for the unit totalled JPY 277 billion as of end-March 2007. Sanyo said it still may decide to establish the mobile phone business as a new independent company. The companies did not disclose a price but a Nikkei report says Kyocera offered almost JPY 70 billion for Sanyo’s mobile business, outbidding rival Sharp.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Sanyo Electric has reached a basic agreement with Kyocera to explore selling its mobile phone business. Kyocera has priority negotiating rights for the mobile business and both companies will assess the value of the unit and work towards a sales agreement. Sanyo has decided to refocus its business following losses at its mobile unit. The sale would comprise the the entire mobile manufacturing business (excluding Tottori Sanyo Electric and Telecom Sanyo), PHS handset and base station business (which is becoming a WiMAX business). Sales for the unit totalled JPY 277 billion as of end-March 2007. Sanyo said it still may decide to establish the mobile phone business as a new independent company. The companies did not disclose a price but a Nikkei report says Kyocera offered almost JPY 70 billion for Sanyo’s mobile business, outbidding rival Sharp.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Seven mobile phone companies can temporarily continue importing handsets and other wireless devices with Qualcomm 3G chips, a federal appeals court said Sept. 12.
The ITC (International Trade Commission) ordered a ban on the products June 7 after determining Qualcomm infringed on a power-saving patent held by Broadcom.
But in a rare legal victory this year for San Diego-based Qualcomm, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ordered a stay of the ban for third parties using Qualcomm chips since Broadcom, of Irvine, Calif., had filed the ITC complaint against only Qualcomm. The court made no determination on the validity of the Broadcom patents or Qualcomm’s infringement.
The decision does not affect ITC’s order banning Qualcomm itself from bringing infringing chips into the United States. The import ban includes baseband processor chips that comprise Qualcomm’s core suite of enhanced multimedia and convergence handset platforms.
Qualcomm, meanwhile, will continue to pursue the appeal of the ITC’s order and seek a reversal of the underlying infringement finding. When the ban was issued, Qualcomm, in addition to its appeal, unsuccessfully sought a White House reversal of the order.
The original ITC ban affected all future cell phones, PDAs, broadband cards and other similar devices intended for consumer use. However, the ITC excluded existing models of such devices from the ban, allowing cell phones already on the market to continue to be sold.
“We are pleased that the Court of Appeals recognized the undeserved harm to parties who were not named in the lawsuit, and that our customers will continue to be able to introduce new products into the U.S. marketplace during the appeals process,” Alex H. Rogers, Qualcomm’s senior vice president and legal counsel, said in a statement.
Third parties freed of the ban pending Qualcomm’s appeal include AT&T, T-Mobile, Motorola, Kyocera, Samsung, Sanyo and LG Electronics. In granting the stay, the appeals court said the third parties demonstrated “a substantial case on the merits and that the harm factors weigh in their favor.”
Verizon Wireless skirted the ban by signing a licensing agreement with Broadcom in July. Sprint Nextel imports and sells cell phones that use alternative power-saving technology.
Broadcom’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel David Dull said in a statement, “We look forward to an expedited process in the appeal and believe that the stay will be lifted for all parties.”
The bitter dispute between Qualcomm and Broadcom spans a number of infringement and antitrust lawsuits and countersuits.
In May, a Santa Ana, Calif., federal jury ordered Qualcomm to pay $19.6 million for willfully infringing on three Broadcom patents. The presiding judge then doubled the award and ordered Qualcomm to pay Broadcom’s legal fees in the case. A decision on Broadcom’s request for a permanent injunction on products using the three patents is expected later this month.
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Qualcomm has won a partial victory in an appeal of an International Trade Commission ban on the import of certain Qualcomm products. As part of a patent infringement suit brought by rival Broadcom, certain Qualcomm chips and the mobile phones that use them were banned from import in the US since June. Qualcomm has now obtained a stay on the ban for importing phones, pending the outcome of its broader appeal in the suit. Third parties applying for the stay will be able to import phones using the Qualcomm chips; these include Samsung, T-Mobile USA, LG Electronics, AT&T, Sanyo Fisher, Motorola and Kyocera. Broadcom had filed the complaint in the ITC against only Qualcomm, leading Qualcomm and the third parties that are “downstream users” to argue that the ITC lacked the authority to issue an order excluding products imported by persons other than Qualcomm. Qualcomm will continue to pursue the appeal of the ITC’s order and seek a reversal of the underlying infringement finding.
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Video compression software and solutions developer On2 Technologies announced its $6.8 million acquisition of mobile video technology provider Hantro Products. Per terms of the deal, On2 will acquire Hantro for a combination of cash and shares of On2 common stock–after closing, expected before mid-August 2007, Hantro stockholders will own approximately 12 percent of the combined company on a pro forma basis, and Hantro will become a wholly-owned On2 subsidiary. According to On2, the agreement will accelerate the deployment of its technology on mobile device semiconductor chipsets–Hantro boasts optimized video compression implementations on more than 200 existing million mobile devices via handset makers including Nokia and Sanyo.
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Sanyo confirms talks on sale of mobile unit to Kyocera
