BlackBerry Awarded Final $940 Million In Arbitration With Qualcomm Over Royalties

Shares of BlackBerry Ltd. jumped 1.2% in premarket trade Friday, after the company said the final award in its arbitration with Qualcomm Inc. is $940 million, up from the $815 million announced in an interim ruling made in April. The sum is viewed as a material win for the mobile device maker, which is working to transform itself into a software company, after its once successful smartphone franchise was hammered when consumers moved to Android and Apple Inc. phones. The arbitration award settles a dispute between the two companies over Qualcomm's agreement to cap certain royalties applied to payments made by BlackBerry under a license agreement between the two. A hearing was held in San Diego, Calif., from Feb. 27 to March 3. BlackBerry agreed in 2010 to make fixed royalty payments per device sold to Qualcomm, at a time when its smartphone sales were very strong and were expected to continue for the long term. When those sales failed to materialize in the face of competition from the iPhone and Android devices, the company argued that the royalty payments were excessive. "Qualcomm will pay the full amount of the final award on or before May 31, 2017," BlackBerry said in a statement. BlackBerry shares have gained 63% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 8%.