Qualcomm lowers profit forecast

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc. <QCOM.O>, a designer of microchips for mobile telephones, lowered its first-quarter profit forecast on Thursday, citing higher legal costs and a deferred payment from a customer.

Qualcomm said it now expects quarterly profit, excluding special items such as stock-based compensation and tax provisions, to be 41 cents to 42 cents per diluted share, compared with a previous estimate of 42 cents to 44 cents.

The San Diego, California-based company also said it expected pro forma revenue for the quarter to be at the high end of its previous forecast of $1.98 billion to $2.08 billion.

Qualcomm had been expected to earn 44 cents per share on revenue of nearly $2.06 billion, according to the average forecast of Wall Street analysts surveyed by Reuters Estimates.

Shares of Qualcomm fell 1.4 percent to $38 in extended trading, after closing up 23 cents at $38.54 on Nasdaq.

The company was deferring some revenue that it had not received from the Pantech Group due to a debt rescheduling at the South Korean company's mobile phone subsidiaries.

"Additionally, our legal expenses in the quarter have increased above our prior expectations as we continue to vigorously defend the legal attacks on our business model," the company said in a statement.

Qualcomm is involved in several legal disputes, including ones with rival Broadcom Corp. <BRCM.O> over patents and competitive practices. Other disputes involve companies such as cellphone maker Nokia <NOK1V.HE>.

Qualcomm is the biggest supplier of chips for cellphones based on CDMA, the most widely used U.S. cellular technology, and designs chips for W-CDMA, a popular technology in Europe.

The company also competes with U.S.-based Texas Instruments Inc. <TXN.N>, the biggest maker of semiconductors for mobile phones, and with STMicroelectronics, Europe's biggest chipmaker.