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Deal Maker of the Year Awards 2013
USA
WINNER - PAUL FISKNESS DEAL: Bharti Airtel buys India wireless
NAME: Paul Fiskness COMPANY: Qualcomm, Inc. WEBSITE: www.qualcomm.com
Bio
Paul Fiskness, Senior Vice President of QUALCOMM Incorporated, led the above transaction on behalf of Qualcomm, working closely with Qualcomm Global Business Development, Legal and Government Affairs personnel. Mr. Fiskness heads up Qualcomm’s Structured Finance & Strategic Investments Group. In this capacity, Mr. Fiskness and a team of professionals are responsible for identifying, developing and investing in start- up wireless service providers and wireless technology companies utilizing Qualcomm’s licensed technology. Under Mr. Fiskness’ leadership at Qualcomm over the past 17 years, the Group has lead, sponsored, negotiated and/or coordinated wireless service provider and/ or Qualcomm technology investment transactions with an aggregate investment value of over $15 billion dollars. Transactions include acquisitions, divestitures, vendor financings, convertible debt, preferred equity, common equity, bridge financings, Infrastructure Bond financings and export credit facilities. The Group has also participated in publicly traded zero coupon bond issuances and as parties to bank credit facilities and early stage venture capital transactions. The Group has expertise in identifying and developing partnerships and projects, commercial and financial structuring, negotiating debt and equity agreements, building operator models, forming bidding consortia and bidding into wireless spectrum auctions. In addition to managing QUALCOMM’s third party debt and equity investment portfolio, Mr. Fiskness also sits on the Board of a number of Qualcomm investee companies in the U.S., Asia, Europe and India.
Prior to joining QUALCOMM, Mr. Fiskness served for approximately 10 years as Vice President and Managing Director of Bechtel Enterprises, responsible for Bechtel’s infrastructure project development and financing activities in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. During his tenure with Bechtel, Mr. Fiskness lived and worked in Hong Kong, Sydney Australia and Singapore. Prior to joining Bechtel, Mr. Fiskness spent four years with the Kuwait based Gulf Investment Corporation and five years with Fluor Corporation in various senior finance, project development and investment roles.
Mr. Fiskness holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Montana and a Master’s degree in Business Administration and Finance from the University of Southern California.
DEAL OVERVIEW
Qualcomm is a company best known for its pioneering 3G and 4G wireless technologies that are used in the majority of mobile phones manufactured today. In fiscal 2013, Qualcomm generated revenues of $24.9 billion predominantly through the sale of its chipsets and the licensing of its 3G and 4G technologies to wireless infrastructure and device manufacturers.
In early 2010, the Indian government announced its 3G and 4G wireless spectrum auctions. The spectrum being auctioned for 4G technologies was in the 2.3GHz band and the ecosystem of telecom equipment and device manufacturers in that spectrum band was quite nascent at the time. However, manufacturers of WiMax infrastructure and devices were targeting the 2.3GHz band in India with the hope of gaining scale from which to export globally. As the developer of essential patents around LTE-TDD, a competing 4G wireless technology, Qualcomm was also seeking to compete in this space and conceived of a strategy whereby it would participate in the spectrum auction, acquire the “beachfront” properties of Mumbai, Delhi, Kerala and Haryana, produce LTE-TDD chipsets and enable the LTE-TDD ecosystem around that spectrum band and then partner with, and ultimately sell its interest in the venture to, an existing wireless operator after commencing an LTE-TDD network deployment.
In June of 2010, QCOM participated in the auction and was successful in winning 4 licenses in the areas mentioned above, bidding a total of $1.05B based on FX rates applicable at the time. Shortly thereafter, wireless operators in India, China and elsewhere holding spectrum in the 2.3GHz band swung their support