Apple to pay 100M to end litigation with Creative over iPOD...

[samintx]

I didn't see this posted here...pardon if it has been posted.

[Carnos Jax]

It's amazing Creative 'got away' with this. I guess it's cheaper to pay them off versus litigating it further.

[Racer X]

Steve has that much in his back left pocket.

[timg]

Maybe Steve is thinking that by settling this with Creative now, they can go out and pester some of Apple's competitors. If they win, Apple can get some of the money back. In the meantime, the competitors are busy fighting lawsuits instead of designing better products.

Just a thought....

[Panopticon]

Ironically, Creative's financial disclosure filings reveal ownership of stock in Apple Computer!

Watch for Creative to go after M$ next. Ballmer won't be amused.

[jdc]

shoulda bought some creative stock, up 25% from $6 to $8

one set of numbers i found "funny"

apple has 57.4 Billion, creative has 500 million...100 million means little to apple but its 1/5 creatives total

[Racer X]

and that check is why the stock will shoot up. Of course next quarter......

[RAMd®d]

That 100M bought Apple a license.

I wonder what the terms of that license are.

When IBM "bought" Windows, it only bought a license, and later when IBM competitors showed up, MS was able to sell Windows to them too.

Stevie would be more savvy these days, so I wonder what the terms are.

And I wonder what *exactly* he was thinking in settling. As jdc points out, this pays big for Creative, amply rewarding this tactic.

[shadow]

I can imagine a meeting between Steve and Creative:

Steve: So what's it going to take for this whole lawsuit to just go away, for good?
Creative: That's hard to say. We have all this IP to protect and it's going to take a significant amount. I don't think we would settle for less than .... *whisper whisper whisper* .... one hundred million.
Steve: Done. (Whips out personal checkbook and starts to write). So, who do I make this out to?
Creative: Oh, shit. Wait a minute... we meant.... crap.

- Shadow

[Silencio]

So Apple's settlement legitimizes the patent, leaving Creative free to go after everyone else, including potentially Microsoft's Zune. That, and Apple's payment to Creative supposedly gets reduced for each other company Creative sues and settles with.

Oh, and Creative signed on to make iPod accessories branded as part of Apple's "Made For iPod" program.

Either Creative sees the writing on the wall for all non-Apple, non-M$ audio players, or Steve royally screwed over Creative.