BlackBerry reaps $814M in dispute with Qualcomm
BlackBerry no longer makes smartphones. But it just landed a $814.9 million golden egg dating to when it was cellphone king.
The Canadian company said Wednesday it had won the award in an arbitration dispute with chipmaker Qualcomm, news that sent shares BlackBerry shares up 16% to $8.93, its highest closing since January 2016. Qualcomm shares were down 3.5% to $53.39.
The two companies entered arbitration in April 2016 over BlackBerry’s charge that it had overpaid royalties to Qualcomm over sales of handsets from 2010 through the end of 2015.
Over the last year, the maker of the pioneering email-enabled phones has pivoted from making smartphones using its own operating system to developing secure operating systems for vehicles, phones made by other manufacturers and other connected devices. In fact, BlackBerry and Qualcomm continue to work together on BlackBerry’s QNX vehicle software systems developed to handle car infotainment, connectivity and self-driving cars.
“BlackBerry and Qualcomm have a longstanding relationship and continue to be valued technology partners,” BlackBerry Executive Chairman and CEO John Chen said in a statement.
Qualcomm said it does not agree with the decision, but “it is binding and not appealable,” it said in a statement. “The decision was limited to prepayment provisions unique to BlackBerry’s license agreement with Qualcomm and has no impact on agreements with any other licensee.”
The loss for Qualcomm comes three months after the Federal Trade Commission charged the San Diego-based chip maker with using its dominant industry position to force “onerous and anticompetitive” terms on mobile phone makers. Subsequently, Apple sued Qualcomm for $1 billion, alleging the company overcharged for its chips. Qualcomm has said it will “vigorously contest” the FTC complaint and that Apple’s claims were “baseless.”