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by trendnet 3365 days ago
Judging by the tone used in that press release, they are in deep trouble. It does not even matter that £60.7 million is a small portion of their business. It could be the opposite of what happened to ARM when Apple decided to put their chips into Newton.
2 comments

Their 2016 annual report notes £120.0m revenue (90 from IP/royalties) and £136.5m in operating expenses with an operating loss of £87.0m. Their new CEO mentions refocusing the company on IP and royalty income. Now Apple, which pays 60% of that income, is ducking out. Ouch.

In the same report, they mention "There are no parties with whom the Group has contractual or other arrangements which are essential to the business of the Group except the contract with Apple Inc." All your eggs in one basket...

What's funny is in their financial risk assessment they focus on bullshit like investment shifts and outside IP threats, but gloss over the whole "what if that huge contract our company depends on happens to fall apart?"

The discussion between Apple and these guys must've really gone south for a nasty and desperate press release like this

> The discussion between Apple and these guys must've really gone south for a nasty and desperate press release like this

That's what I found most intriguing. Why go public with this? (Especially with ongoing litigation)

UK regulations on stock markets are quite tough, publicly listed companies must share information that could impact the company as soon as they can. Public opinion is pretty susceptible to this too due to events in recent years.
I call this good old fashioned and fair to shareholders. Not tough. Wall Street is basically where you get the worst , and unfair treatment as a shareholder.
Signalling a potential lawsuit so that Apple enters into a patent licensing agreement.
Hinting at possible future litigation (and ultimately winning damages from Apple) is them trying to offer some light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
>> What's funny is in their financial risk assessment they focus on bullshit like investment shifts and outside IP threats, but gloss over the whole "what if that huge contract our company depends on happens to fall apart?"

Perhaps thats why they've refocused on IP, projects that are actually profitable.

Apple accounts for one half of their revenue.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-imagntn-tchnlgs-apple-idUS...