The Ledger
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Blocking Broadcom's Qualcomm Takeover Was a Massive National Security Win
“This is one of the huge wins of the Trump administration you know, for like America was keeping Qualcomm an independent American company. Like whether it was Qualcomm calling in a favor or just what, like, I think we can all look back in 2022 and be like, this…”
Qualcomm's Best Days Are Behind It If It Remains Only Handsets
“I think if they continue to try to run the same playbook in just the handset market that they have been, the best days are behind them because people have caught onto their games a little bit and are gonna, gonna squeeze them from a bunch of different directio…”
Qualcomm Historically Failed When Straying Beyond Core Cellular Competencies
“Qualcomm historically has failed every time they've tried to do servers or watches or smart home or displays. Like, every time they've strayed too far from their core competency, it hasn't been good.”
Qualcomm Is Developing a Direct Competitor to Apple's M-Series Chips
“They already make Snapdragons for the high-end Android phones, and soon they'll be able to make a competitor to Apple's M series chips for laptops and desktops and maybe even servers.”
MediaTek Surpassed Qualcomm in Total Semiconductor Unit Shipments
“MediaTek systems are way cheaper than Qualcomm. And I think they actually just surpassed Qualcomm in terms of number of units shipped.”
Qualcomm's Market Entry Strategically Rivals or Surpasses Nvidia's
“The business history of Qualcomm, just like Bill Gurley said on the blurb of this book, It is one of the most brilliant strategic executions of entering a market period. You know, like, writ large ever. Like, this is on par with NVIDIA, if not, honestly, more …”
Qualcomm Earns Roughly $20 for Every Smartphone Sold Globally, Including iPhones
“And I, you know, to the point that I think today, Qualcomm makes on average about 20 dollars for every Smartphone sold in the world, including Apple iPhones.”
Qualcomm Contractually Forced Apple to Vocally Condemn WiMAX Under Penalty
“Qualcomm asked Apple to speak out against WiMAX, which is a competing technology. They were like, we need you to vocally Speak out that our competitor is a bad piece of technology. They also stipulated that if Apple ever used a competing supplier and keep in m…”
In 2022, Qualcomm Outranked Nvidia as the Largest Fabless Semiconductor Company
“Qualcomm today is the largest fabulous semiconductor company in the world... Bigger than NVIDIA.”
Semiconductors Generate 85% of Qualcomm's Total Annual Revenue
“Today, Qualcomm's total revenue is what, close to forty billion annually, I think? ... Of which 85% is their semiconductor business.”
Qualcomm's Early Team Possessed Unreplicable Process Power Like Pixar's Braintrust
“I think Qualcomm during the golden years that we told the history of had real process power. I think it was equivalent to the Pixar brain trust. Like that set of people working together under those set of circumstances were wholly unique in the industry and th…”
Broadcom Backed Its $117B Hostile Takeover of Qualcomm with $106B Debt
“In 2018, Broadcom comes in and tries to do a hostile takeover at a one hundred and seventeen billion dollar valuation. And interestingly, it was financed by one hundred and six billion dollars of debt.”
Hardware Success Requires Forecasting Moore's Law for the Ship Date
“There are so many things that we've talked about in the last, I mean, on Acquired generally, but especially in the last year, where their success came from correctly forecasting where Moore's Law would be at the time that they shipped their product.”
Qualcomm's OmniTRACS Revenue Doubled Annually for Five Years
“The business doubles every year for like five years from a thirty two million dollar base.”
Hollywood Star Hedy Lamarr Co-Patented Spread Spectrum Technology in 1942
“They develop A concept that they patent, and they get issued a confidential patent that stays confidential for decades in the US military... It was issued in 1942, so four decades that this history was completely unknown. They develop a novel technique to defe…”
Apple Paid Qualcomm $4.5B in 2019 for Six-Year Patent Licenses
“Apple also paid four billion, now switching over to the licensing side of the house to secure the patent licenses over the next six years. I think it was four and a half billion dollars for a six year deal.”
Qualcomm's 2022 Market Cap Merely Matched Its Dot-Com Bubble Peak Valuation
“Qualcomm today has a one hundred and twenty billion dollar market cap, which, two things. One, that's astonishing. That's impressive. They're technological pioneers, and they're amazing at value capture. Two, that is the same price that it was worth at the pea…”
Qualcomm's Licensing Business Operates at a 69% Margin, Double Its Chips
“They do forty four billion in revenue. Chips make up most of that at thirty seven billion. Licensing fees make up only seven billion, but the licenses Are a much higher margin business. It's a 69% margin. I think it's earnings before tax margin on licensing ve…”
Qualcomm's Founders Took 50% Dilution in 1988 to Fund OmniTRACS
“So everyone gets diluted 50%, By merging with the customer themselves in order to get just a few million dollars to continue funding this effort.”
South Korea Once Accounted for Nearly 40% of Qualcomm's Revenue
“South Korea, for time was, I think, close to 40% of Qualcomm's revenues, because the whole country, like, and it was one of the, you know, most advanced mobile countries all just using Qualcomm.”
Qualcomm Stock Gained 2,621% in a Single Year as Top Performer
“The single best performing stock for the entire year 2000 is Qualcomm. It appreciates, the Qualcomm stock appreciates, 2621% for the 366 days of the year, 2000?”
Eich: MicroUnity Made a Fortune Suing IBM, Qualcomm, and Broadcom
“MicroUnity, you probably haven't heard of, but it's got a lot of patents, and it's successfully litigated them from 20 years ago to maybe 10 years ago. I forget when they ran out of steam. I think it, Just made a ton of money off suing everybody. IBM, Motorola…”
Qualcomm Sold Its Mobile Phone Division to Kyocera in 1999
“December of 1999, Kyocera buys Qualcomm's mobile phone business, so they now officially just sell chips that they call QTC, the Qualcomm CDMA Technologies Group, and then they've got a second group, QTL, which is called Qualcomm Technology Licensing.”