$1B wiped off Samsung’s value following Presidential veto; Samsung continues appeals

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The WSJ reports that more than a billion dollars were wiped off Samsung’s market value today following President Obama’s veto of the decision to ban the import of iPhone 4 and 3G iPad 2 devices into the USA. The fall represented 0.9 percent of the company’s market cap.

While a Presidential veto over-rules the original ITC ruling, the Financial Times reports that Samsung is appealing the ITC decision on the grounds that it only upheld one of the four patents it believes Apple has infringed. The appeal is expected to be held in Q1 2014. Were Apple to lose then, however, the impact would be significantly lower, as Apple is almost certain to have launched new iPhones and iPads by then, with the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 likely removed from Apple’s retail and online stores and seeing only residual sales elsewhere … 

Samsung and Apple are both awaiting the result of a mirror-image patent dispute in which Apple is alleging that some of Samsung’s Galaxy products infringe its patents. Apple has asked the ITC to ban imports of the models concerned.

The FT says that the market is less focused on patent battles between the two companies, and more interested in growth and margins.

Adnaan Ahmad, an analyst at Berenberg Bank, said:  “The fact that margins are being questioned, growth is being questioned in the mid to long term – these are much bigger issues for the companies.”

Back in June, Samsung lost $12B – 6 percent of the company’s value – from its market cap, largely over fears that the launch of the S4 Mini and S4 Active could result in lower margins than it was enjoying from the original S4.