Short Term Benefit
Now, were Apple successful (which, fortunately for Apple, seems doubtful) every other firm would likely demand the same cut rate deal. This would clearly cripple Qualcomm’s ability to provide technology reducing Qualcomm’s market cap sharply. But the firm would still have value and companies like Alphabet (Google’s parent), Microsoft, Samsung, and Lenovo (Motorola) would likely move in aggressively to buy the firm. None of these firms think that kindly of Apple and might decide to simply not license this core technology to Apple anymore.
Apple, in defense, would have to enter this bidding war so that the iPhone wasn’t effectively locked out of having access to Qualcomm’s technology. And facing a firm that was even better funded than Qualcomm that was and less likely to license anything to Apple would be, given Apple’s dependence on the iPhone, a going out of business strategy.
So, if Apple won they’d maybe get two quarters of unique savings which they wouldn’t pass on to customers and use to spike their margins, but within a year, would have to either outbid firms that also have massive war chests, or face the possible collapse of the iPhone.
