Infineon denies it has lost contracts, pares losses

FRANKFURT, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Shares in Infineon pared losses on Tuesday after comments from the company cooled market speculation that the German chipmaker lost a key contract with Apple.

An Infineon spokesman told Reuters that the company had 'not lost any contracts.'

At 1024 GMT, Infineon shares were 3.6 percent lower at 3.25 euros, rebounding from losses as sharp as 10 percent early on Tuesday morning.

Traders had earlier pointed to talk that Infineon had lost a key Apple contract.

'(I'm) hearing that they have lost a contract to supply chips for the iPhone. (There is) also talk that one of their main chips will be superseded by a competitor's next year,' said a trader.

A Frankfurt-based trader said at the heart of the speculation was a legal debate over 'pass through rights' which allow a handset maker to automatically acquire all intellectual property rights when they purchase chip technology.

Infineon has never officially said it has supplied Apple with the semiconductor chips used to make its best-selling iPhone, but several teardowns of the phone have claimed that Infineon makes at least two Apple branded parts in the phone.

(Reporting by Jens Hack in Munich, Tyler Sitte and Kirsti Knolle in Frankfurt and Blaise Robinson in Paris) Keywords: INFINEON/iPhone ([e-mail], Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]; [phone]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.