Every since Qualcomm was founded in 1985 by Irwin Jacobs, it’s become quite the mobile chips behemoth. When he passed away, it was passed to his son Paul. It appears as though there’s some drama brewing inside Qualcomm and disagreements between Paul Jacobs and the company’s board has caused tension.
Jacobs apparently wants to make sure Qualcomm stays a family business and will have to do it from outside the company. On Friday, Qualcomm said that Mr. Jacobs, a company director, will not be renominated for election at its annual shareholder meeting next Friday.
To elaborate on the decision, the company’s board said that it reached the decision because Mr. Jacobs wanted to explore making his own bid for Qualcomm. Jacobs later confirmed late Friday that he wanted to take Qualcomm private.
Due to this split, it means that there’s no member of the Jacobs family involved at the top helm of Qualcomm for the first time in 33 years. In a statement to NYTimes, Jacobs said that the situation was “unfortunate and disappointing they are attempting to remove me from the board at this time,” when speaking about the company board.
Mr. Jacobs served as the chairman of Qualcomm from 2009 until March 9, when he was replaced at the position. Furthermore, one of the reasons why things are even more tense inside Qualcomm is because of the attempted hostile $117 billion takeover by Broadcom that recently failed due to national security concerns. President Trump stepped in and said the deal was to not go through amid national security questions.
