Taiwan’s HTC Corp chief executive Peter Chou told reporters on Tuesday that he regards media reports on the details surrounding his company’s 10 year cross-licensing deal with Apple (AAPL) as “baseless” and “outrageous”.
Speaking at a KDDI Corp product launch in Tokyo, Chou said rumors that HTC will pay Apple $6 to $8 per Android phone as part of a global settlement on all patent litigation, was an outrageous estimate. The executive was likely referring to a research note written by Sterne Agee’s senior tech analyst Shaw Wu in which he speculates that HTC will pay up to $8 per phone if HTC continues to sell 30 to 35 million Google (GOOG) Android-based smartphones per year. If Wu’s numbers are correct, that would amount to an additional $180 to $280 million annually for Apple.
[via Reuters] “I think that these estimates are baseless and very, very wrong. It is an outrageous number, but I’m not going to comment anything on a specific number. I believe we have a very, very happy settlement and a good ending,” Chou said.It’s not clear yet exactly how much HTC is paying Apple since Chou did not offered when asked any further comments on the official details of the settlement.
Leave a Reply