There have been two companies who have covered ParkerVision since 2005.

Halpern Capital

    2005.10.24 Initiate coverage

    2005.10.25

    2005.11.08

EGE Institutional Research Reports

    Research Update 2007.12.03

    Research Update 2007.11.14

ParkerVision filed its first patent for its RF technology, called D2D™, in 1996 and has, over the years, aggressively touted its technical advantages as “revolutionary”. Ten years later, however, the net result from D2D technology is no revenue, no customers, no partnerships, and no licensing agreements. The company’s efforts in consumer wireless products were shut down in the summer of 2005 after many “discussions” with customers.

From 1997 to 2001, ParkerVision signed five partnership agreements to help develop and promote its wireless technology. During this period, ParkerVision announced agreements with IBM, Boeing, Questar, PrairieComm, and Texas Instruments. All five companies terminated their agreements with ParkerVision shortly after signing the initial agreement.

Our analysis (see Technology section) indicates that D2P technology is destined to fail in the marketplace rather than succeed, although only time can prove this fact. Ironically, the announcement and claims surrounding D2P technology are conspicuously similar to the D2D technology that ParkerVision launched in 1996. We explore some key similarities here.

Originally, in 2002 and 2003, ParkerVision claimed that it would sell OEM chips based on its D2D technology. Such sales never materialized. ParkerVision then announced in 2004 that it was going to focus on D2D technology and brought wireless LAN cards to the consumer market. ParkerVision announced a variation on D2D called D2P in January 2005. It shut down its efforts in consumer wireless products in the summer of 2005, and in the second half of 2005, ParkerVision announced in 2004 that it was going to focus on bring D2D technology into wireless LAN products for the consumer market.

The RF power amplifier market is fiercely competitive. OEM’s favor the top suppliers because of their proven reliability for a part that is a small and shrinking percentage of devices’ overall bill of materials. Even if ParkerVision is able to achieve one or more design wins, this market normally has a 1.5 to 2 year lag from first sample (2006?) to volume shipments, so that early 2008 is the absolute best case for meaningful revenue from a D2P product.

Halpern Capital initiated coverage on ParkerVision with a BUY rating and price target of $11 on October 25, 2005.