By Mark Basch
Contributing Writer
ParkerVision Inc.’s stock soared higher Monday after the Jacksonville-based technology company announced an agreement with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to license ParkerVision’s patent portfolio.
Terms of the settlement are confidential but the one securities analyst who has been following ParkerVision, Jon Hickman of Ladenburg Thalman, said the agreement is significant because it represents validation of the company’s wireless technology by a major manufacturer.
ParkerVision says its technology improves the performance of wireless devices.
“I don’t think there’s any way to overstate how important this is to them,” Hickman said.
Samsung is one of several major manufacturers that have been sued by ParkerVision in recent years on claims they have been illegally using wireless technology patented by ParkerVision.
Because of the agreement, ParkerVision is dismissing pending claims against Samsung in a U.S. International Trade Commission investigation and two U.S. District Court cases.
ParkerVision gave no other details of the licensing agreement and said the two companies agreed to not disclose financial terms.
However, news of the agreement sent ParkerVision’s stock immediately higher when trading opened Monday.
It reached as high as $8.18 in early trading, more than double Friday’s closing price of $3.56. It fell back some and closed at $5.98, up $2.42 on the day.
ParkerVision’s revenue has been minimal in recent years as it pursued agreements with various manufacturers and pursued legal claims against several of them.
The company reported revenue of just $59,420 in the first quarter this year for engineering services for wireless product testing for a customer. It often has no revenue at all in its quarterly financial reports.
Hickman said ParkerVision isn’t saying anything about the potential revenue from the Samsung deal. He had been projecting the company to achieve $60 million in revenue next year and the deal with Samsung makes him “more comfortable” about that estimate.
“The company is very, very happy with the settlement,” Hickman said.
“Samsung is a world leader in technology and innovation, and we are pleased to welcome Samsung as a licensee of our technologies and to dismiss the outstanding litigation between the parties,” CEO Jeff Parker said in a news release.
ParkerVision added Samsung to a patent infringement lawsuit it filed in 2014 against Qualcomm Inc. and HTC Corp. That lawsuit is still pending.
Samsung was also included as a defendant in a federal lawsuit and the ITC complaint, both filed in December 2015, alleging several companies are illegally importing products into the U.S. using ParkerVision’s patented technology. Qualcomm, Apple Inc. and LG Electronics Inc. were also named in those actions.
The ITC case is scheduled for trial next month.