The thoughtful may see it as a positive. Would you rather have to fight 3 companies in court or have to settle with each for perhaps a marginal amount, or only have to fight one entity that captures not only the original three, but ALL their other customers as well? And, again, IMO this greatly increases the probability of royalties coming into play (whether TPL likes it or not - if they want to fully capitalize, and why wouldn`t they?). This is like a second shot at INTEL/AMD, only NOT for a discount, but for real money.

Up till now, it`s all been a delaying tactic (in concert with ARM). The J-3 (assuming all three have the clause in all their contracts with ARM) withheld their Company Private/Proprietary information (i.e., their contracts with ARM) as long as possible to delay things when they all knew, all along, that the whole thing would ultimately fall on the shoulders of ARM. This is so obvious that the courts will see right through it, and probably won`t be kind/sympathetic to ARM. And there may be legal recourse against the J-3 by the courts, and by TPL for legal expenses (as the J-3 should have known that the liability would be borne by ARM). Courts/Judges don`t like being blatantly jacked around. And can you spell ``conspiracy``?

JMHO, and I KNOW nuttin`!

SGE