“Shares in Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC tumbled as much as 6.5 percent on Monday after losing a preliminary ruling in a patent case with Apple Inc, with its announcement of a share buyback failing to stem the fall,” Jonathan Standing reports for Reuters. “On Friday Apple won a preliminary ruling from a U.S. trade panel that HTC infringed on two of the California company’s patents , the first step in an acrimonious dispute between the two in the cut-throat smartphone market.”
“HTC, with an eye on the damage to its shares from the ruling, said over the weekend it would buy back up to 20 million of its own shares before Sept 17, or about 2.4 percent of its outstanding shares,” Standing reports. “The buyback price will be between T$900 ($31) and T$1,100 per share. The first 10 million will be bought back from July 18 and the second from Aug. 18”
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“The company will give half the bought-back shares to staff and retire the rest,” Standing reports. “‘HTC was intending to tell investors T$900 would be the shares’ bottom, but obviously investors did not buy that,’ said Simon Liu, deputy investment officer of Polaris Financial Group’s fund arm. ‘Instead, they are betting the ITC ruling would hurt its future earnings and market share. Even worse, more similar legal battles would follow.'”
Read more in the full article here.
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