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What: Shares of ION Geophysical
So what: The suit involved Schlumberger
Now what: This is a huge deal considering ION only made a $23 million profit last year and the DigiFin product only accounted for 3% of projected revenue this year. It doesn't seem worth infringing on patents, and the judge even found that the infringement was intentional, meaning the damages could be increased. ION has $83.4 million of cash on the balance sheet and vows to fight the ruling, but I don't see this as a good sign for the company. It may not impact operations all that negatively, but it will take time to rebuild the balance sheet considering how big the ruling is in comparison to ION's profits.
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