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The Morning Ledger: Apple, Qualcomm End Long-Running Legal Battle
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Apple CEO Tim Cook speaking on the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, Calif., in 2017. PHOTO: JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES
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Good morning. Apple Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. agreed to dismiss all litigation between the two companies world-wide, ending a long-brewing legal battle over how royalties are collected on innovations in smartphone technology, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The deal: Apple and Qualcomm reached a six-year license agreement effective April 1, including the option for a two-year extension and a multiyear chipset-supply agreement. The companies didn’t disclose what Apple will pay in patent licensing fees. Qualcomm said the agreement will add about $2 in earnings per share as modem chip shipments begin.
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Long battle. The two-year feud started as global smartphone sales slowed, pressuring both companies’ businesses. Apple added chips from Intel Corp. to some iPhone models in 2016, as its most recent contract with Qualcomm—which included an exclusivity clause—concluded. It then slapped Qualcomm with a lawsuit in January 2017.
Heightened distrust. Qualcomm executives suspected Apple of supporting a hostile takeover bid by Broadcom Inc., and Apple executives were angered that Qualcomm hired an opposition-research firm with ties to a news outlet that published articles calling the iPhone maker Silicon Valley’s biggest bully.
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The U.S. Commerce Department is scheduled to release U.S. trade deficit figures for February at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect the foreign trade gap in goods and services rose to $53.8 billion from $51.15 billion a month earlier.
Morgan Stanley, Abbott Laboratories, E*Trade Financial Corp. and Alcoa Corp. are among the companies scheduled to report earnings today.
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Boeing 737 Max airplanes are seen at the company's manufacturing facility in Renton, Wash., on March 27. PHOTO: DAVID RYDER/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Fixing the grounded 737 MAX plane is only one of Boeing Co.’s daunting tasks in recovering from two fatal crashes of the jet. Another is trying to repair its reputation with airlines, pilots and passengers world-wide.
A pair of technology unicorns—consisting of Pinterest Inc. and Zoom Video Communications Inc.—will launch themselves into the public markets Thursday, hoping the messy recent debut of Lyft Inc. is in the rearview mirror.
Nokia Corp., now the world's No. 2 telecom equipment company, is trying to expand in China and the U.S. at the same time, steering a path through a technology war being waged by the two great powers.
IWG PLC, the world’s largest flexible-office company, is harking back to a business model popularized decades ago by fast-food chain McDonald’s Corp. as it tries to fend off a challenge from upstart WeWork Cos.
Facing pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn, the board of Caesars Entertainment Corp. named a new chief executive and is forming a committee to review whether it should remain a stand-alone company.
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Air Taxi Startup Lilium Hires First CFO From German Utility Uniper
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Lilium GmbH, a Munich, Germany-based air taxi startup, on Wednesday named Christopher Delbrueck as its first chief financial officer, effective in September. Mr. Delbrueck is currently CFO at German utility Uniper SE, a former E.ON SE unit that was spun off in 2016.
At Lilium, Mr. Delbrueck will be tasked with expanding the company's finance function and with organizing additional funding from investors. "A key part of the role will be to talk about financing," Mr. Delbrueck told CFO Journal's Nina Trentmann.
The company has raised more than $100 million, but expects it will need additional capital to manufacture and operate a fleet of battery-powered aircraft. "There is strong appetite from investors," Mr. Delbrueck said. Among the company's current investors are Chinese technology giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. and LGT Group, a private banking and asset management group based in Liechtenstein.
Lilium plans to launch its air taxi service in 2025 but prior to that needs to win regulatory approval for its five-seater aircraft. Trial services will start before 2025 in several locations, Lilium said. Passengers will book a flight through an app, similar to how they would book a car ride with Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc.
In his new role, Mr. Delbrueck will focus on building a digital and lean finance function, he said. "We will start without legacy systems," he said. "I would always be restrictive on new hires." Lilium currently employs a handful of people in the finance department, Mr. Delbrueck said.
One of the reasons for him to join Lilium was the "fascination of building something innovative," he said. "With large organizations, it is sometimes difficult to move the old tanker," Mr. Delbrueck said.
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T-Mobile US CEO John Legere, left, and Sprint Executive Chairman Marcelo Claure, right, at a House hearing in Washington on March 12. PHOTO: MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
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U.S. Justice Department staffers have told T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. that their planned merger is unlikely to be approved as currently structured, according to people familiar with the matter, casting doubt on the fate of the $26 billion deal.
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Elon Musk agreed with the government last year to have Tesla Inc. lawyers preapprove tweets that “reasonably could contain” material information about the car maker’s business. Those words are now at the center of talks between the two parties over his 2018 civil-fraud settlement.
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The Trump administration plans to intensify pressure against Cuba by allowing U.S. nationals to lodge claims against foreign companies that do business there, a senior U.S. official said, setting up a fresh front in the U.S.’s widening economic rift with Europe.
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Auto makers struggling to meet government targets for electric-vehicle production are facing the prospect of heavy losses—whether or not they satisfy the mandate.
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More than 110 years after President Theodore Roosevelt began the most famous lawsuit in the history of monopolies, the U.S. government is officially declaring its work is over. The Justice Department is done breaking up Standard Oil Co.
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The only Democratic member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to leave government later this year, paving the way for a more conservative tilt on some regulatory decisions.
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Chinese workers pouring molten steel at a factory in Fujian province on April 10. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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China’s economic growth held to a 6.4% rate in the first three months of the year as factory production picked up significantly amid signs authorities worked forcefully to stabilize business following months of weakness.
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American manufacturing production failed to bounce back last month after slumping earlier in the year, showing the global slowdown is squeezing a key sector in the U.S. economy.
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