The news just keeps getting worse for Samsung.
On Friday, a jury ruled in favor of Apple and awarded the tech giant $1 billion in damages stemming from Samsung's alleged willful violation of the iDevice-maker's patents and intellectual property. As a natural consequence of this devastating blow to Samsung, traders on Wall Street are punishing the company mercilessly today.
As MMi reported this morning, shares of Samsung are getting battered in the largest single-day decline in nearly five years. Unfortunately for the prominent maker of hardware for Android devices, the pain may have only just arrived.
In addition to the unsettled possibility that Samsung may be compelled to pull many of its products from the shelves, Android may similarly be forced to fork over a pretty penny in response to every smartphone or tablet device running Android that Samsung has already sold in the past or will sell in the future.
"In our opinion," one analyst from Wells Fargo observes, "the court system has been a key lever in a company's ability to gain a more favorable position over a competitor in negotiations (i.e., for patent royalties). We believe this is a strong first step for Apple in its patent war and believe Apple is likely to file for an injunction to stop Samsung from selling its infringing products in the US."
"However," the report published Monday continues, "regardless of whether an injunction is granted, we expect Samsung to appeal the decision and ask for a stay of an injunction, if one is granted. If Apple is successful to conclusion, we believe it could result in a significant royalty stream, all else equal in Samsung's share."
Let's also not forget that US District Court Judge Lucy Koh - who had previously given Apple and Samsung numerous attempts to work this matter out amicably - has within her power the ability to award triple damages to Apple in response to the "willful infringement" that was allegedly perpetrated by Samsung against Apple.
Not surprisingly, on Monday, a fresh set of Wall Street watchers stepped-up their estimates for how high shares of AAPL will go in the near term. As of this writing, Apple continues its record climb on NASDAQ, trading well above $676 today.
Source: Fortune
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