Earnings Labs

QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM)

Q4 2006 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 2, 2006

$150.55

+0.20%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+0.30%

1 Week

-4.21%

1 Month

+6.55%

vs S&P

+2.80%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the QUALCOMM fourth quarter conference call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to Bill Davidson, Vice President of Global Marketing and Investor Relations. Bill, please go ahead, sir.

Bill Davidson

Management

Thank you and good afternoon. Today's call will include prepared remarks by Dr. Paul Jacobs, Steve Altman, Dr. Sanjay Jha and Bill Keitel. An Internet presentation and audio broadcast accompanies this call, and you can access it by visiting www.QUALCOMM.com. During this conference call, if we use any non-GAAP financial measures as defined by the SEC in Regulation G, you can find the required reconciliations to GAAP on our website. I would also direct you to our 10-K and earnings release which were filed and furnished respectively with the SEC today and are available on our website. We may make forward-looking statements relating to our expectations and other future events that may differ materially from QUALCOMM's actual results. Please review our SEC filings for a detailed presentation of each of our businesses and associated risks and other important factors that may cause our actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements. Pro forma revenues were $2 billion in the fourth fiscal quarter, up 28% year over year and 2% sequentially. Fourth fiscal quarter pro forma net income was $705 million, up 30% year over year and down 3% sequentially. Pro forma diluted earnings per share were $0.42, up 31% year over year and even sequentially. Fourth fiscal quarter pro forma free cash flow, defined as net cash from operating activities less capital expenditures, was $907 million, up 8% year over year and was 45% of revenue. Before I turn the call over to Dr. Paul Jacobs, I would like to mention that we are hosting an analyst meeting on November 13 in London. The meeting will be simulcast on our website with audio and slide presentations. Questions from our webcast participants can be submitted prior to the meeting by going to QUALCOMM's Investor Relations website at www.QUALCOMM.com and following the links to our London webcast. Now it is my pleasure to introduce QUALCOMM's CEO, Dr. Paul Jacobs.

Paul Jacobs

Management

Thank you, Bill and good afternoon, everyone. Let me begin by thanking the employees of QUALCOMM for delivering another spectacular year. Despite the numerous challenges by a few companies to our business model this year, as an organization we have remained focused by continuing to both innovate and execute, and I am delighted to report that this effort has resulted in some excellent financial and operational results. Let me first comment on our financial results. Our pro forma earnings per share were up 41% year over year to $1.64. We were able to significantly outperform our original FY '06 guidance of $1.43 to $1.47 because we, with our partners and licensees, enabled stronger than predicted growth in handset shipments across all forms of 3G CDMA and because average selling prices of phones stabilized due to customer adoption of higher end features and a more rapid transition of 2G subscribers to 3G. These trends drove record pro forma fiscal year revenue, generating $7.53 billion, up 33% year over year, and pro forma net income of $2.8 billion in FY 2006, up 42% year over year. Now let me spend a few minutes going through some of the key achievements for our business in fiscal 2006. In QCT, each quarter of fiscal 2006 represented a new record for shipments, that obviously resulted in a record for the entire year. This outstanding performance included a total of 207 million chips shipped this year as compared to 151 million in fiscal 2005 and 137 million in fiscal 2004. QCT continues to demonstrate the benefits of our fabless business model and its ability to scale to our increasing volumes. Our growth also continued in QTL where we signed 22 new 3G CDMA licenses. Other significant licensing milestones included granting our first-ever licenses for single mode…

Steve Altman

Management

Thanks, Paul, and good afternoon, everyone. I would like to first update you on the status of some of the legal proceedings that we are involved in. Let me start first with the complaints that were filed in Europe by six companies that have been referred to as Project Stockholm. There has recently been some confusing media reports issued about the expected next step in the process, and so I would like to clear up the confusion. The next step in the process is for the EC to decide whether or not to continue its informal investigation. Although we expect that the EC will shortly make a decision to continue its informal investigation, such a decision means only that the EC will continue to do what it has been doing. That is gathering and evaluating information in order to fully understand the complaints. Such a decision would not signal that the investigation has become formal or intensified as some media reports have mistakenly suggested. The decision to continue the informal investigation is not the equivalent of a statement of objections which would signal a more formal phase, nor does it indicate one way or the other whether a statement of objections will ultimately be issued. We have been advised that in complex cases it can sometimes take years -- in some cases as long as five to six years -- for the commission to reach the next milestone, namely a determination whether to either reject the complaints or initiate formal proceedings and issue a statement of objections or negotiate proposals to close the case. Because we feel that our agreements and actions have been lawful, we remain optimistic that the commission will ultimately decide not to issue a statement of objection. We have seen several positive developments in our litigation…

Sanjay Jha

Management

Thank you, Steve. Good afternoon. I would like to review some key highlights for QCT. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006, QCT continued to set new milestones for financial performance. We set records for MSM chipset shipments, for revenue and for CSM channels. By shipping approximately 56 million MSMs, QCT established a record for the fifth straight quarter. This compares to approximately 55 million MSMs shipped in the third quarter of fiscal 2006 and 40 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005. Year over year, this represents a 40% increase. For the full 2006 fiscal year, QCT shipped approximately 2007 million MSMs compared to approximately 151 million in fiscal 2005 for a 37% annual increase. For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006, QCT achieved record revenues of over $1.1 billion. This amount is marginally higher than the third quarter but represents a 26% increase year over year. Our fiscal 2006 annual revenue of over $4.3 billion is a 32% increase over fiscal 2005. This represents a compound annual growth rate over the last four years of 28%. While QCT's annual operating profit of 26% in fiscal 2006 remains consistent with 2005, our operating profit increased 33% to greater than $1.1 billion for this fiscal year. As chip shipments and revenues accelerate, we are seeing the results of our technology innovation in the form of wireless devices launching throughout the world. QCT tripled our shipment of EV-DO chipsets in fiscal 2006, a fact that can be partially attributed to strong market acceptance of mobile broadband services. Both PC cards and mobile handsets supporting the next evolution of EV-DO networks, EV-DO Revision A, will be commercially launched before the end of the year. We remain committed to emerging markets, and this past quarter introduced that QSC 1100 single chip solution…

Bill Keitel

Management

Thank you, Sanjay and good afternoon, everyone. We are very pleased to report another year of record revenues, earnings per share and operating cash flow. GAAP earnings for fiscal 2006 were a record $1.44 per fully diluted share. Share-based compensation was an estimated $0.19 per share. QSI was a $0.02 loss per share, net tax benefits related to prior years were $0.02 per share, and acquired in-process R&D expense was $0.01 per share. Excluding these items, our pro forma earnings for fiscal 2006 were a record $1.64 per fully diluted share. Pro forma revenues increased 33% yea –over year to $7.53 billion, and pro forma net income increased 42% to $2.8 billion. Our businesses continued to generate strong cash flows. Operating cash flow for fiscal 2006 was $3.25 billion, up 21% year over year and was a healthy 43% of revenue. During the year, we returned approximately $2.2 billion in capital to our shareholders through a combination of stock repurchases and our growing dividend program. This includes cash dividends paid of $698 million, or $0.42 per share, and 34 million shares repurchased for $1.5 billion. Although our share repurchases were reduced in the fourth fiscal quarter as compared to the third fiscal quarter, we continue to believe that our stock is undervalued. From time to time, however, we make judgments that due to the tendency of potentially significant events -- for example, earnings announcements, litigations, major contracts or acquisitions -- that it would be inappropriate for us to be in the market for our stock until such events had been concluded and then subsequently disclosed. Fortunately, we have a lot of exciting things happening at QUALCOMM. Unfortunately, from time to time that impedes our ability to execute on the stock buyback program at the pace we would otherwise choose. QCT…

Bill Davidson

Management

Before we go into our question-and-answer session, I would like to remind our participants that our goal is to address as many as possible before we run out of time. Therefore, I’d like to ask you to limit your questions to one per caller. Operator, we are ready to accept questions.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Paul Sagawa - Bernstein. Paul Sagawa - Bernstein : Hi. So if I'm looking ahead into 2007 and the next quarter, I think a lot of folks in the market have been a little bit spooked by comments from Nokia and Texas Instruments about WCDMA demand in the near term, particularly out of European carriers. Your guidance for 2007, $175 million, upbeat and I must say I agree with it, but it is a little bit counter to some of that more cautious commentary. Can you talk a little bit about what you're seeing with regard to demand for WCDMA handsets in Europe that leads to a more optimistic view? Also, is this some indication that you believe that your chipset customers may be taking market share in the near term in WCDMA?

Bill Keitel

Management

Hi Paul. With regard to our WCDMA estimates for next year, we are expecting very substantial growth for the European market. We will get into the details of that in London. But I have heard some concerns by some of the parties you have mentioned more focused on the near term. I have heard that a bit in Europe, with reference to Europe. I would say that we are expecting, based on our information and forecasts that a lot of our licensees have shared with us, we expect an increased number shipments into the European market in the September quarter relative to the June quarter, and I expect the same continuing into the December quarter. Where I have seen some statements that sync with ours, I would note that in the Japan market as strong as things are there, I think people have stocked up on inventory in anticipation of local number portability, and we have a modest decline estimated for our shipments of product in Japan in the September quarter, although picking back up in the December quarter. So I think that did sync with a number of other comments from other people. But overall for WCDMA in Europe, I would say that we see HSDPA being deployed at an increasing rate, and I think that data ARPU is going to be the compelling point there. As well as the ASPs I think will continue to improve and make it even more enticing for operators to be pushing WCDMA.

Paul Jacobs

Management

Thank you. We are also heartened by the price competition that is happening, and in particular this Huawei phone that I talked about earlier is coming in at a significantly lower price that allows WCDMA phones to enter a different tier in the pricing. So we hope to see that as a significant driver of volume as well.

Sanjay Jha

Management

Paul, you had a question about how I see our wideband CDMA chipset demand going forward. We have seen a fairly substantial increase in demand for wideband CDMA chipsets for the December quarter over September quarter, so I have to say September quarter was, for wideband CDMA, not as strong for us as we had initially hoped. But there is a fairly substantial uptick in demand in the December quarter. Consistent with what Bill and Paul said, we see significant strengths in the wideband CDMA marketplace and our guidance reflects that. I should make one additional point. One of our competitors who indicated the Japan market is weak for them has a particularly large exposure to DoCoMo's high-end OMAP kind of marketplace. As you have seen with number portability, both Soft Bank and KDDI appear to be doing rather well. I could certainly see that that could be the case. Paul Sagawa - Bernstein : Great, thanks.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from John Bucher - BMO Capital Markets. John Bucher - BMO Capital Markets: Thank you. A question on your fiscal 2007 outlook. Bill, I guess this would be for you. You indicated R&D and SG&A would be up 16%, so that would explain why pro forma EPS will grow at a slower rate than the revenue outlook. I am wondering how much you are factoring in there – and the employee base stuff I understand, you probably have a pretty good idea on that – but how much variable expense might be there, just all depending on a variety of the legal contingencies and how they play out? Could there be, perhaps a range that the R&D and SG&A would be up, the 16% perhaps being a midpoint? What is the standard deviation if things go well on the legal front? Thank you.

Bill Keitel

Management

Sure, John. A couple of points. On that 16% year over year estimate, it isn’t a midpoint. First, I would say that the majority of that is what I call carryover from fiscal 2006. We have ramped our employee base, particularly our engineering base, significantly in fiscal 2006. Now we will see a full year effect of that in fiscal 2007. We do expect to reduce quite substantially the rate of new hiring into fiscal 2007 relative to the past three or four years. So the majority of that increase I think is the carryover from a full year effect of the hiring we put in place this year, number one. Number two, I did also mention it is also legal fees. The numbers are quite substantial, and we're planning at this time in our estimates to increase our spending on legal for fiscal 2007. We will have to see how that proceeds, but if you put a band around that 16%, I would say it is a plus, minus 4% or so, like a 12% to 20% kind of band. John Bucher - BMO Capital Markets: Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Mike Ounjian - Credit Suisse. Mike Ounjian - Credit Suisse : Great, thank you. Also looking at the '07 guidance but for the handset shipments, particularly on the CDMA side. As you mentioned, there has been a lot of focus on a few operators in the developing regions who are looking at GSM. Could you talk about some of the factors that are driving the overall number to be up and in particular what regions you really see growth coming from next year?

Bill Keitel

Management

I will take a stab at that. So for CDMA2000 the calendar '07 versus calendar '06 guidance that we just shared with you, I think it's about a 4% year-over-year increase for CDMA2000. We will give a regional breakdown consistent with how we define our regions today and breakdown our global estimates, but I'm pretty confident when you see that, we will show you a growth in all markets. Our expectation is good growth in all markets with the exception of Latin America. Take Latin America out of our CDMA2000 estimates and I think our forecast for CDMA2000 growth is closer to about 9%. So we think there's a good market ahead for CDMA2000 in most all regions around the world.

Mike Ounjian - Credit Suisse

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Steve O’Toole - Lehman Brothers. Steve O’Toole - Lehman Brothers: With respect to the framework you outlined for Nokia and the pending issues there, you said there was little progress to-date, so you would expect it to go beyond the April timeline. You mentioned that you would be looking to pursue or entertain injunctions. When you think about that as a framework, should we be thinking that is a dispute that you would anticipate going through several quarters, perhaps then, of the fiscal '08 given the way you see it now? I am sure Bill you may be reluctant to share some of the assumptions behind $0.04 to $0.06, that is quite a precise range that you're suggesting would be the impact from Nokia in September. Perhaps you might be able to give some framework for how you think that might develop going forward, or should we going forward and just use that as a reasonably steady-state rate? Lastly, maybe just directionally in terms of the regions, while you're going to give detail at the Analyst Day, should we think about Brazil and India -- given the issues there -- as growing next year, or how should we think about that?

Steve Altman

Management

It is Steve. Let me just real quickly respond to your question regarding Nokia. I think it is very difficult to forecast how long or short these negotiations will go. It is certainly very possible that it could go for several quarters or even beyond as the courts systems are used and so forth. So it is a possibility, and like we said, we have discussions with them regularly. We will continue to have those discussions, and if progress is made, we will let you know. Steve O’Toole - Lehman Brothers: But you, in terms of expectations, look for a fairly lengthy and drawn out process?

Steve Altman

Management

Let's say it this way that we plan accordingly to that, but we are hopeful that it does not go as long as it could.

Bill Keitel

Management

On the $0.04 to $0.06 estimate for Nokia, I have been through that a few different times in the last few months or more. It has been a stable forecast. It is a good forecast. At this point I would say I would be surprised if it fell outside that band. Then on India, again, we will share the regional guidance in London, but we are looking for a healthy growth year over year for CDMA2000 in India, albeit it is a low-end market. So as I have said in the past, it is an important market for us, but in terms of bottom line contribution, it is more of a business development than anything else.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Ehud Gelblum – JP Morgan. Ehud Gelblum – JP Morgan: Thank you very much. First, a quick clarification and then a question. The clarification, did you mention ASP on the 3G phones that you had in prior quarters? If not, can you give us some sense as to what it looked like and how it has trended over the last couple of quarters? That would be great. As you look forward to the EPS guidance ranges that you gave for the first quarter and for the fiscal year '07, they seem to be a little lighter than the optimism on the top line and the $175 million WCDMA handsets for '07 would suggest, which I think are both very strong numbers.

Bill Keitel

Management

I will take a stab at your answers here. On the ASP, the trend here has been for the quarter we just reported, average ASP was $223, it was $213 in the prior quarter, $208 in the quarter before that. We averaged $215 for the fiscal year. We have not disclosed the WCDMA versus CDMA2000 breakout of that here this quarter. But suffice it to say, WCDMA remains at a fairly significant premium, although the range of handset prices available in WCDMA is very broad. In terms of your point on mix of royalty payments, I would say it is more, Ehud, that you get variability in terms of the mix of handset royalties and infrastructure royalties. Of course, there are a lot of changes OEM to OEM and what they are selling quarter to quarter, and then region by region. But other than that, no, I don't think there's anything really of note that I would point out. We will get into a little more detail in London on margins and profitability, et cetera.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Mike Walkley - Piper Jaffray.

Mike Walkley - Piper Jaffray

Analyst

Great, thanks. Just another question on the fiscal '07 guidance. I think on your QCT division, you mentioned a 25% to 32% rate with a big ramp in R&D again this year. Would it fall below that rate maybe in '07 and go back to that range into '08? With the price of GSM phones continuing to fall, I think Nokia said in their conference call north of 40% of their volume was below EUR50, maybe you can talk about the single chip solution and how that is progressing and how you are closing the gap on pricing between CDMA and GSM on the entry markets?

Sanjay Jha

Management

I will take that. Yes, you're right. I have guided you to 25% to 32% of the range that we drive the business to. This year we were at 26%, as we were last year. My expectation is that we will come in below 25% for overall operating profit for QCT for '07. But obviously we see this right now as the kind of investment that we need to make while there is ongoing consolidation in UMTS industry. We see our ability to invest as a core competitive advantage, and it is a conscious decision that we are taking to continue to make that investment, not only in reducing cost of our chipsets but also investing in the next generation of HSPA, sometimes often called HSPA+, to further improve the capabilities of HSPA technology. I think that we have made a conscious decision, and yes, for the first time, we are falling outside the long-term range that we have guided you to. Secondly, on single chip solutions, I expect that there will be launch of handsets based on our single chip solution this year in various parts of the world. Of course, you recognize that Ron Garriques (Motorola, President, Mobile Devices) in his analyst call said that he will deliver. I expect that there is a chance that one other handset manufacturer might deliver a handset based on single chip solutions this year, and there is a possibility that they may not, and they cannot do it in January/February. But there are 18 handsets being designed based on single chip solutions, so I think that we will see healthy competition in the low end, and we really think that we will drive the price of low-end handsets to be very, very competitive with GSM. Again, I'm cautious in saying that we will be exactly the same price, but we will get closer and closer. We have shown that combined with very cost effective, low-end handsets the capacity increases that we are offering makes this quite compelling for our carriers. I think that those were the two parts of your question.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Inderbir Singh - Prudential Equity Group. Inderbir Singh - Prudential Equity Group : Thanks very much. I wanted to just come back to the comments that you made in the press release about in the event that the Nokia agreement is not signed in time, obviously you have indicated there would be some legal options you might pursue. In the past, Paul or Steve, I think you've also addressed the possibility of business actions you might take, business restructuring perhaps. Could you maybe bring us up-to-date on where you are on your thought process on that?

Steve Altman

Management

I guess all I would say is that we are keeping our options open and looking at what the best thing to do is to enhance or maintain shareholder value. I would not say that I have any specific new initiatives to announce along those lines. Just to say that it is a possible response to these negotiations.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Brian Modoff - Deutsche Bank. Brian Modoff - Deutsche Bank : On page 6 of the press release, you talk about your inability to use self-integrator circuits under Nokia's patents. Do you see any issues getting around those patents, or do you see them having potentially leverage on your chipsets from that? Also, talking about low-cost CDMA, are you working on a single chip WCDMA type product, and could we see something like that for next year? What are the carriers you're seeing in Europe saying to you around their promotion plans for WCDMA? Christmas clearly Vodafone with 77% of their phones WCDMA, has some plans there. We are also hearing from Orange similar plans around that. Can you kind of comment on that, please?

Sanjay Jha

Management

I will take the latter two questions. First, on single chip solution, Brian, clearly after having established the technology for CDMA, we have the ability to go deliver that in wideband CDMA, and we look forward to announcing that at the appropriate stage in the near future. On the second part of the question about the carriers' plans, we actually see fairly aggressive plans from the carriers. If you look at the Vodafone UMTS lineup, it is actually a really compelling lineup. We think that looking from a broader wideband CDMA perspective Nokia has some good devices. Motorola has some good devices, and there are lots of devices based on our solution on Vodafone's lineup, which I think will be very compelling for consumers. As you say, Orange is also becoming more aggressive. We see Cingular in the U.S. with their rollout of HSDPA and UMTS becoming more aggressive. And the M&P competition that is now raging in Japan, also driving more sales of both CDMA and UMTS devices in Japan. So I think that it is fair to say that we are cautiously bullish on what happens in the December quarter.

Lou Lupin

Analyst

I will answer the first part of your question. We have never believed that Nokia's patents are applicable to our products. As you probably know, our current rates for Nokia are royalty-free. So there has been never any tacit acknowledgment of their applicability to our products. Having said that, we believe that if we are unable to resolve the current impasse in the negotiations before April that there is likely to be litigation going both ways. I'm sure Nokia is going to take a different position, and that question, if not resolved through some kind of amicable arrangement, will get sorted out in the courts and various other bodies that have the responsibility for deciding patent matters.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Hasan Imam - Thomas Weisel Partners. Hasan Imam - Thomas Weisel Partners : My question has to do with actually the December quarter guidance. Last year's seasonality and WCDMA ramp had contributed to pretty strong sequential growth, and this year it appears to be more flat lining, despite your positive comments on the WCDMA handset segment and the India inventory overhang clearing up. So I am just wondering why we don't see more of an acceleration? Is that primarily the trade out between unit growth and ASP declines? Thank you.

Bill Keitel

Management

In terms of unit growth, I think that as I said, we always expected the channel inventory excesses we were concerned about for China and India to work itself out by the end of the calendar year, and we see that happening. So we're very encouraged by that. It is consistent with our prior estimates, but we do think that is happening as we speak, and part of that in this current December quarter. So that would be part of the effect, number one. Number two, you have quite a ramp I think that occurred in Japan in anticipation of a L&P, so I think that was also a factor that adjusted a bit what you might otherwise have seen in a quarterly profile. In terms of ASPs, I think our forecasts in the past have been pretty accurate on ASPs. I hope they will be again. We certainly have put the same effort into them, so we are expecting a modest decline in the ASPs, but other than that I think it is pretty much business as usual.

Hasan Imam - Thomas Weisel Partners

Analyst

As a follow-up to that, if we continue to see the WCDMA ramp in December quarter, does that indicate because of your revenue recognition, a stronger first half '07?

Bill Keitel

Management

As phones ramped in the December quarter, that will positively affect our royalty revenues in the March quarter. So to the extent our forecast of units is correct for the December quarter, I have tried to size that in my March estimates, and I gave you some indications of guidance for the second fiscal quarter.

Hasan Imam - Thomas Weisel Partners

Analyst

Great, thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Daryl Armstrong - Citigroup. Daryl Armstrong - Citigroup : Thank you very much. I have a question for Lou. You talked about the litigation that will likely extend from QUALCOMM to Nokia and Nokia back to QUALCOMM post the April deadline. Do you think that litigation exposure also extends to your chipset customers if they accept your chips after that deadline? Do you anticipate that QUALCOMM would indemnify those customers if there is some exposure there?

Lou Lupin

Analyst

The litigation could in theory extend to those customers who don't independently have rights from Nokia. Having said that, I think it is unlikely that Nokia wants to involve most of our customers in this because they are going to again get a similar reaction from the customers. That is, the customers will assert patents back against Nokia, as well as the patents that we would be asserting. So I think it is unlikely that they would want to draw in our customers. I don't really want to comment on the terms and conditions of our supply agreements between us and our customers. So I think I will leave it at that.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Tal Liani - Merrill Lynch. Tal Liani - Merrill Lynch : I had just one clarification on the prior answer and then one question. Nokia on their conference call discussed specifically about pass-through rights and said that they are not getting pass-through rights. Probably you're not going to answer on a specific question on Nokia, but would you mind to clarify the issue of pass-through rights, how does it work? What kind of rights do you have in general that you pass through your customers? My question is something very specific on Japan. Can you discuss on any potential inventories at NTT for WCDMA phones?

Steve Altman

Management

This is Steve. On the pass-through rights, it probably would take longer than we should give it here on this conference call. But let me just say at the analyst conference in London, I will go into more detail on pass-through rights, how they work and so forth. If you can bear with us until then, I think you will get a better understanding. Tal Liani - Merrill Lynch : About inventories at NTT since TI made a comment about some inventories in Japan?

Sanjay Jha

Management

Tal, we do have some handsets at NTT DoCoMo, but I think we don't have enough visibility for the entity DoCoMo to comment in detail except to say, as Bill said, there was some buildup of inventory in anticipation of mobile number portability. So far, we see Soft Bank and KDDI being disproportionate winners out of that transition. So I think beyond those data points, I couldn’t point to anything else.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Tim Long - Banc of America. Tim Long - Banc of America : Bill, if I could just ask you a question on the September quarter QTL line. I was a little surprised to see it up only 3% sequentially. If you could just explain if there was anything funny in the quarter there? Because if you look back at the June numbers, you had a pretty good spike in ASP, up 4% or 5%, and unit shipments looked like they were up about 6%. So I am just curious as to why the royalty line with the quarter lag, it seems like the license revenues were about stable, why we didn't see a bigger sequential jump in that line? Has there been any change in overall rate or anything else in the quarter?

Bill Keitel

Management

Tim, no change in rates for licensees. Those rates stay constant. So again, it comes back to a different mix of infrastructural royalties versus test equipment royalties versus phone royalties. And then there are small amounts of special credits that sometime folded into the QTL segment. I think we had a modest amount of those in the September quarter.

Tim Long - Banc of America

Analyst

Okay. Well, Bill, should I think of it as the prior quarter was helped out on the high side or the June quarter or the September quarter was hurt on the low side? Which was a more normal number would you say?

Bill Keitel

Management

Tim, I will go into a little more specifics for 2007. I think that is the key is 2007, and we will go into a bit more specifics in London.

Steve Altman

Management

Let me just clarify. When we talk about credits or so forth, what we're really talking about is time to time with special programs with carriers, we will provide incentives to carriers to sell more product or focus more on certain applications and so forth. Those types of expenses get allocated to QTL in terms of growing the overall CDMA business. So that impacts the amount.

Operator

Operator

Your final question comes from Matt Hoffman - Cowen & Co. Matt Hoffman - Cowen & Co. : Thanks. Another question on the term changes in the negotiations with Nokia. Steve, Nokia discussed a four-part test for an injunction post April 9 and thought QUALCOMM would not be able to meet the standards for that test. Could you discuss both the test and QUALCOMM's ability to prove the company is entitled to an injunction if no agreement with Nokia is reached. Thanks.

Lou Lupin

Analyst

I will take that one. We think we will have utterly no problem meeting the four-part test. You're talking about a situation of a company that had a license that has been paying royalties, acknowledges the applicability of our patents in the most sincere way by paying large amounts of money for them, and then declines to renew and deliberately infringes. I think under those circumstances we are going to have very little difficulty in getting an injunction in meeting the test. I would be happy to expand upon the legal specifics of that test at a later time. I think it would take more time than we have now. I'm planning on being in London as well. So either Steve or I would be happy to address that there.

Operator

Operator

Dr. Jacobs, do you have any closing remarks?

Paul Jacobs

Management

I would just like to say that for the first full year of our new management team, I'm extremely pleased by the results that we were able to deliver. You know, there were obviously a few companies that decided to attack us and certainly have attempted to flood the market with a lot of misinformation. I guess I had hoped that we would have built a stronger working relationship with some of those companies, and I still remain hopeful that that will happen in the future. But I definitely want to highlight the fact that we are working extremely well with a large number of partners, and we are creating many new partnerships both inside and outside of the wireless industry. So despite these attacks, we really have remained extremely focused on innovation, execution and partnerships, and I think that you will see that we have many new products, new technologies and news services that we will bring to market in the next fiscal year. So thanks, everybody for joining us. I will look forward to seeing some of you in London.

Operator

Operator

This concludes the QUALCOMM fourth quarter conference call.