Qualcomm put a long-running patent row with Huawei behind it, signing a settlement and long-term licensing deal with the Chinese vendor, as it posted mixed numbers for its fiscal Q3 (30 March to 28 June).

During an earnings call, CEO Steve Mollenkopf said the Huawei contract means Qualcomm is “now entering a period where we have multi-year licensing agreements with every major handset OEM”.

CFO Akash Palkhiwala said Qualcomm expects to begin receiving royalty revenue from Huawei in the current quarter, including $1.8 billion from a settlement covering back payments from H2 in calendar year 2019.

Qualcomm’s previous licensing deal with Huawei expired in June 2019.

Inclusive of the Huawei payments, the company forecast revenue of $7.3 billion to $8.1 billion for the current quarter, despite an expected 15 per cent year-on-year drop in handset shipments due to impacts from Covid-19 (coronavirus) and a delay to an unspecified “global 5G flagship phone launch”.

The comment appeared to confirm previous reports Apple planned to put off production of new iPhone models expected to be launched later this year.

Metrics
In Qualcomm’s fiscal Q3, profit fell from $2.1 billion to $845 million, with revenue of $4.9 billion down from $9.6 billion.

However, excluding the impact of a $4.7 billion licensing payment from Apple in fiscal Q3 2019, revenue was flat.