Qualcomm says Nokia settlement boosts outlook

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) on Thursday raised its guidance for the full-year 2008 after announcing a legal settlement and a technology licensing agreement with Nokia (NOK1V.HE).

Qualcomm shares were up as much as 19 percent at $53.40 in premarket trading after the news. Its shares had closed at $44.82 in regular Nasdaq trading on Wednesday.

Qualcomm's full-year, pro forma earnings per share, excluding items such as its investment arm, would be $2.11 to $2.13 on revenue of $10.3 billion to $10.5 billion.

In June, Qualcomm had forecast full-year earnings of $2.09 to $2.13 per share. In April, it had forecast revenue for the year of $10 billion to $10.4 billion.

Qualcomm and Nokia announced a legal settlement late on Wednesday that ended their three-year litigation that spanned three continents. The companies also announced technology license agreements for multiple technologies.

Qualcomm said that while it was at an early stage of working out the mechanics of the Nokia settlement, Qualcomm's preliminary estimate was that the agreement added 7 cents to 13 cents a share to full-year earnings.

Qualcomm forecast fourth-quarter earnings per share of 49 cents to 51 cents on revenue of $2.5 billion to $2.7 billion.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Derek Caney and Maureen Bavdek)