Qualcomm’s CEO says his company and Apple are “on the doorstep of finding a resolution” of the their ongoing legal battles over patents and royalties.
“We do talk as companies,” Steve Mollenkopf told CNBC’s Jim Cramer in an interview. The situation is consistent with “the fourth quarter of the game, and not the first quarter,” Mollenkopf went on.
“We’ve always talked about — I’ve been very consistent — that…the second half of this year and into next year is when we’re really on the doorstep of finding a resolution and we don’t see anything different than that,” he explained.
The Qualcomm CEO went on to say that Qualcomm would “love to work with Apple,” on a future 5G-equipped iPhone. Apple’s current iPhone lineup – the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR – use Intel modems in place of the Qualcomm modems used in earlier models.
While a report earlier this month indicated that no negotiations of any kind were being conducted between the battling firms, Mollenkopf’s comments indicate there may be light at the end of the legal tunnel.
Apple filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Qualcomm in January 2017, charging that Qualcomm was withholding money as retaliation for Apple’s cooperation in an antitrust investigation. A rash of suits and countersuits around the world soon followed between the two firms.
