Qualcomm must have been worried
This case was the big enchilada, if they lost here even partially all their other licensees could potentially come back and sue them as well. Even if those other licensees couldn't claw back past overpayment they'd be able to pay Qualcomm less going forward - hence the big jump in Qualcomm's stock the minute this settlement was announced. I guess Qualcomm didn't like the look of the jury they ended up with yesterday or something?
Unfortunately we'll never know the terms, Apple had withheld billions in payments from Qualcomm so the fact Apple had to kick in some cash is hardly surprising but if we knew the amount of the payment it would give a big clue as to whether this deal ended up closer to what Apple had been demanding or what Qualcomm wanted.
The one company it is bad news for is Intel, since there's a chip supply agreement mentioned, though no mention of quantity so Intel may keep some iPhone volume after this year. Though given that Apple is working on their own cellular modem it might not make a whole lot of difference in the long run depending on when Apple is ready to start using their own. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried it out first in the lower end "Xr" class device, or even a new "SE", for the first model year just in case there are problems they didn't catch during testing.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
