Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of InterDigital (IDCC 1.01%) jumped more than 20% Tuesday after the wireless R&D specialist announced a new patent license agreement with Samsung Electronics.
So what: InterDigital states the multi-year, royalty-bearing agreement resolves all pending litigation between the two companies, and covers the "sale by Samsung of 3G, 4G, and certain future generation wireless products.
As a result, InterDigital revised second-quarter revenue expectations to between $172 million and $210 million, including recurring revenue of $72 million to $80 million, and past sales of $100 million to $130 million. For perspective, analysts were modeling current quarter revenue of just $48.6 million, and roughly two weeks ago InterDigital told investors to expect total Q2 revenue between $65 million and $72 million.
Now what: InterDigital CEO William Merritt added, "This agreement with Samsung shows how our long-standing patent licensing framework and process can lead to effective, productive discussions and eventual resolution on fair and reasonable terms."
To be sure, this is a massive win for InterDigital and its shareholders and could set precedent for the company to make similar deals with other prospective licensees. With shares currently trading around 13 times next year's expected earnings -- and considering those expectations will likely rise as analysts have time to digest today's news -- I think InterDigital looks like a bargain even after today's pop.
