Qualcomm has agreed to allocate $75 million to settle a lawsuit filed by shareholders. The lawsuit alleged that the company misled investors about its business tactics, which purportedly led to an artificially inflated stock price. The settlement, revealed in a court document reported by Reuters, concludes a long-standing dispute over the company’s patent licensing strategies.
Allegations of Misleading Practices
Central to the shareholder lawsuit were claims that Qualcomm had not fully revealed its patent licensing procedures. Specifically, Qualcomm was accused of denying licenses for standard essential patents to some competitors and linking chip sales to patent licenses. Shareholders argued that these opaque practices artificially boosted the stock price.
Qualcomm’s business tactics have not only come under scrutiny from shareholders but also from major corporations like Apple and regulatory bodies such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Apple and other agencies accused Qualcomm of unfairly tying chip purchases to patent licensing negotiations.
Despite these challenges, Qualcomm has largely succeeded in court, overturning many regulatory actions and settling various lawsuits with Apple. The company is also currently locked in a two-year legal battle with Arm, which wants Qualcomm to halt the sales of chips using Nuvia processor technology.
Qualcomm owns Nuvia but Arm holds licensing agreements before the acquisition. If successful, Arm could force Qualcomm to stop selling the Snapdragon X ARM-based processors. That would also mean Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs would also be in jeopardy.
Settlement Details and Approval
While Qualcomm has previously won key legal battles, the shareholder lawsuit remained unresolved. Shareholders contended that the company’s assertive licensing methods led to an inflated stock price. The $75 million settlement, pending judicial approval, offers compensation to the shareholders. Qualcomm has yet to issue a comment regarding this settlement.
The contested practices spanned from February 2012 to January 2017, a period during which Qualcomm’s licensing tactics were heavily scrutinized. Apple, for example, argued that Qualcomm exploited its dominant position to impose exorbitant prices for essential baseband processor licenses, even prompting Apple to consider switching to Intel modems.