By Teresa von Fuchs
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Earlier this week, American Technology Research Analyst Mark McKechnie downgraded Qualcomm from a "buy" to a "neutral" rating on the tip that handset maker Motorola has moved away from using Qualcomm's 3G technology for mobile phones in favor of Texas Instruments and Freescale.
"We have confirmed that Motorola has already begun to shift resources away from Qualcomm's 3G efforts," McKechnie wrote to in an advisory note to clients. He also speculated that with Motorola focusing on returning to profitability, Qualcomm's chip prices or royalty rates were too high.
There is also the matter of Qualcomm's legal wrangling with chip-maker Broadcom that could make working with the tech powerhouse less attractive, especially as the handset maker tries to pull itself out of its slump. Broadcom earlier this summer successfully won an International Trade Commission (ITC) ban on imports of handsets using Qualcomm's 3G chipset technology.
Qualcomm has not yet confirmed the report about Motorola.