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 ParkerVision, Inc. (PRKR +16.04%) fell more than 10% early Monday, then closed down around 9% on worries surrounding its ongoing legal battle with Qualcomm.
So what: Shares of ParkerVision briefly popped earlier this month as investors cheered perceived favorable rulings relating to a $173 million patent infringement judgment originally awarded to ParkerVision last October. However, shares have largely given up those gains as investors have had time to fully digest comments from ParkerVision CEO Jeff Parker regarding the royalties in the case. Specifically, during last week's earnings conference call Parker noted:
Essentially Judge Dalton held the jury's decision with regard to damages and willfulness. The judge also denied ParkerVision's motion for permanent injunction against Qualcomm. He indicated that he was inclined to grab on the royalties to ParkerVision; however, he differed the decision on the royalty amount. Instead, he ordered the parties to meet and confer to determine whether an agreed-upon royalty rate could be reached.
Now what: Parker went on insist investors' focus right now shouldn't necessarily be on this trial, but instead on "announcements that meaningful revenue generating agreements which we anticipate will be forthcoming during the year." To be sure, ParkerVision has roughly $25.3 million in cash on its balance sheet, generates no revenue, and turned in a net loss of $5.8 million last quarter.
In any case, given uncertainty surrounding this case and with no revenue-generating agreements in place right now, I can't blame the market for taking a step back from ParkerVision today.
