“Analysts say if Apple succeeds in barring the sale of HTC phones in the U.S. market, that would be detrimental to the company because about half of its sales come from North America,” Kok reports. “‘If Apple wins the lawsuit, this may potentially affect HTC’s revenues and their competitiveness in the long run,’ said Chia-lin Lu, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities.”
Kok reports, “HTC Chief Financial Officer Hui-Meng Cheng said Wednesday he doesn’t believe the lawsuit poses a material impact on its business and he doesn’t expect the lawsuit will change its first-quarter guidance. ‘Our legal counsel is still studying the matter and we’re still trying to understand the details of the case,’ Mr. Cheng said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Time out. Logic problem. Somebody please explain the following sentence, because we can’t:
HTC’s legal counsel is still trying to understand the details of the case, but HTC says that Apple’s lawsuit doesn’t pose a material impact on their business.
Here’s a wild idea: Maybe HTC should first understand the details of the case before making pronouncements on its material impact on their business? (And, please don’t confuse Charmian Kok with Chairman Cock. The former writes for Dow Jones Newswires out of Taipei and the latter claims to be “Supreme Leader” of North Korea.)
Kok continues, “News of the lawsuit pressured HTC’s shares Wednesday, with the stock falling as much as 3.3% to 319 New Taiwanese dollars, or about US$9.96. Year-to-date, HTC’s shares are down 10%, underperforming the benchmark Taiwan index’s 7.2% decline.”
MacDailyNews Take: And there’s your material impact.
Kik continues, “Alen Lin, an analyst at BNP Paribas, he has a “hold” rating on HTC with a 12-month price target of NT$300 because of the company’s uncertain outlook.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Cue the Kim Jong-il supporters. 
