Apple (AAPL) will make between $6 – $8 per phone licensing fee from HTC under the patent cross-licensing deal the two companies reached over the weekend, Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said in a research note to clients this morning.
[via Forbes] “Financial terms were not disclosed but we believe AAPL is likely getting a net licensing fee due to its much stronger patent portfolio and we think position as undisputed inventor of the modern smart phone with touchscreen,” he writes. “We view this as a positive and the big question is whether Samsung and Motorola will also reach settlement agreements.”Based on Wu’s estimates, at $6-$8 per HTC phone sold Apple will make an additional $180 to $280 million annually from HTC if the Taiwan-based company continues to sell 30 to 35 million Google (GOOG) Android-based smartphones per year. Wu also notes that the licensing fee is lower than the range Apple initially proposed, but higher than the patent license fee HTC reportedly pays Microsoft (MSFT) for each Android phone as part of a separate patent settlement, rumored to be $5 per phone.
The bottom line, Wu notes, given that Apple has over $120 billion in cash, another $180-280 million is basically immaterial to the co.’s financials.
“For a lot of companies, $180-280 million in annual licensing revenue from one vendor is material but for AAPL it will likely be immaterial to its financials given its large revenue base of $193 billion and $48 billion in net income that the investment community is forecasting for FY 2013,” he writes.
Shares of Apple were changing hands at $543.11 at last check, trading down $3.96, or about 0.72% on Monday.
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