Qualcomm - Forbes Article

It is a bit long, but it is an interesting read:

Cellular Scion by David Whelan linked here.

Some quick snips:

Qualcomm faces a thicket of new challenges--a revolt by some of its biggest customers, an antitrust suit led by corporate killer David Boies and an unrelenting pace of wireless innovation that could render Qualcomm irrelevant if it doesn't constantly update its patent library.

"We said, ‘Let's create a cellular market for Wi-Fi,'" says Scott Richardson, chief of Intel's Wimax business. "There is going to be a battle." Sprint, Nokia and Motorola, and a new venture from wireless billionaire Craig McCaw, are lining up behind Wimax.

Paul Jacobs dismisses the myriad threats . . .Intel's Wimax dream is little more than a PowerPoint presentation, he adds. "They're the kind of people who see the world as a nail because they have a hammer."

The CDMA design now reaps more than $2 billion a year in patent fees for Qualcomm, which collects a de facto tax of 5% or so on the wholesale price of one-quarter of the 750 million cell phones sold around the world every year. Some 90% of this fee flow goes into earnings before taxes.

Hat tip to Forbes.