Top Tech Companies Complain to EU about Qualcomm

Reuters reports that six firms -- Ericsson, Nokia, Broadcom, Panasonic Mobile Communications, NEC and Texas Instruments on Friday accused Qualcomm of stifling competition in the mobile phone chip market in a complaint filed with European regulators. The complaint said Qualcomm is trying to exclude rivals from the market for chips based on a high-speed wireless standard being used in phones in Europe and other parts of the world.

Charter Equity analyst Ed Snyder said, "Uncertainly always pressures valuations. It seems unlikely that the EU is the venue that can change the history of licensing agreements with Qualcomm."

Harris Nesbitt analyst John Bucher added he had not seen the complaints, but said, "If the complaint is that they're charging one company a higher royalty rate than another that does not appear to me to be anti-competitive. That's symptomatic of licensing practices in a number of technology industries."