Earlier this month Apple and HTC agreed to settle their legal differences by agreeing to a 10-year licensing deal. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but following the settlement, Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu suggested HTC could be paying Apple between $6 and $8 per handset. HTC CEO Peter Chou has now rebutted the estimate, describing it as “outrageous”, according to Reuters.
Speaking at a KDDI Corp product launch in Tokyo, Chou is reported to have said: “I think that these estimates are baseless and very, very wrong. It is a outrageous number, but I’m not going to comment anything on a specific number. I believe we have a very, very happy settlement and a good ending.”
Chou personally led the negotiations with Apple, according to HTC chairwoman Cher Wang — quoted in the FT, for a separate story denying HTC has any plans for a boardroom shakeup. The company is reportedly suing a Taiwanese magazine for defamation for suggesting there is tension among its top execs.
“Peter Chou has my total trust [and] support… There’s not any doubt about his accomplishment and ability,” Wang is quoted as saying by the FT in a statement issued by HTC.
HTC has been losing out in recent times to fellow Android OEM Samsung, which dominates the smartphone market. Last month HTC reported its Q3 financials, with revenues of $2.4 billion — a drop of almost half (48 percent) compared to the year-ago period, and down 23 percent from last quarter’s $3 billion.