BlackBerry Awarded $800 Million Refund from Qualcomm
BlackBerry this week was awarded more than $800 million, ending a dispute with chipmaker Qualcomm over royalty payments.
The news sent BlackBerry’s stock up more than 15%, reaching its highest since early 2015.
BlackBerry is apt to use this new cash influx toward completing its transition from a phone manufacturer to a software and security firm. This will likely be accomplished at least partially through acquisitions, according to analysts.
Qualcomm owns patents that broadly cover mobile technology, and as a result, the company gets a cut when phones sell, even if they don’t use Qualcomm’s chips. But BlackBerry didn’t ship nearly as many phones as it expected from 2010 through 2015, a period during which the company had signed a royalty agreement with Qualcomm. Consequently BlackBerry demanded a refunded and Qualcomm—which faces several lawsuits over similar matters currently—was forced to cough up the dough.
