Sirf Tech Digs Its Own Grave

The ugly business trend has pushed Sirf's shares down roughly 89% from their 52-week high of $30.61. Given the recent spate of GPS acquisitions (including Broadcom's purchase of GlobalLocate), there was hope that the company's crumpled share price might at least lure a buyer and provide investors with some upside.

With Sirf's intellectual property now devalued by the recent ITC ruling though, the company has little to offer.

Instead of owning crucial real estate in the booming world of mobile gadgets, Sirf now looks like an ordinary renter, subservient to the whims of other landlords.

And the pending suits in U.S. District Court mean that Sirf could also potentially be on the hook for monetary damages if those cases follow the same line of thinking as the ITC.

Meanwhile, the legal defeat kills any illusion that the new management team at Sirf might have a strategy to right the ship.

The new team got off to a less-than-stellar start by announcing a $13.5 million investment in a private, unnamed GPS firm as one of its first moves, and immediately writing off $11.8 million of the investment the following quarter.

The legal defeat removes any remaining reason for confidence.

A fresh team might have been expected to re-evaluate the aggressive litigation strategy Sirf was pursuing, and sought to settle with Broadcom -- particularly, given some of the negative signs that were emerging, such as a separate ITC ruling in June - following a complaint by Sirf -- which found that Broadcom wasn't infringing on Sirf's patents.