“Qualcomm Inc. has begun cutting about 1,500 jobs in California as part of a broader workforce reduction aimed at meeting a commitment to investors to pare costs by $1 billion, according to people familiar with the process,” Ian King and Mark Gurman report for Bloomberg.
“The layoffs in California represent the bulk of the cuts, though some positions will be eliminated in other locations, one person said. Globally, San Diego-based Qualcomm employs about 34,000 people,” King and Gurman report. “‘We first evaluated non-headcount expense reductions, but we concluded that a workforce reduction is needed to support long-term growth and success, which will ultimately benefit all our stakeholders,’ Qualcomm said in the statement. The company said it will offer severance payments to those affected.”
“The smartphone-chip maker pledged in January that it would slash $1 billion in expenses to improve earnings, part of its efforts to fight off a hostile takeover bid from rival Broadcom Inc. Shareholders were set to ignore that promise and support the acquisition offer, until the Trump administration disqualified the deal on the grounds that it would pose a national-security risk,” King and Gurman report. “Qualcomm’s management team now must live up to its vow and work to solve other problems that have hampered revenue and profit growth.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The jig is up. It’s time to earn your money, Qualcomm. For a change.
Qualcomm’s licensing scam — charging a percentage of the total cost of all components in the phone, even non-Qualcomm components — is unreasonable, illogical, and irrational. Qualcomm’s FRAND abuse must stop.
SEE ALSO:
Apple CEO Tim Cook to be deposed in Qualcomm lawsuit – April 6, 2018
Judge Koh sets aside sanctions order against Apple in FTC v. Qualcomm antitrust case – February 8, 2018
Apple gets support from Lawyers for Civil Justice in fight against discovery sanctions – February 1, 2018
EU fines chipmaker Qualcomm $1.2 billion for paying Apple to shut out rivals’ chips – January 24, 2018
Apple sanctioned in Qualcomm FTC case for withholding documents – December 22, 2017
Apple countersues Qualcomm for patent infringement – November 29, 2017
Apple designing next-gen iPhones, iPads that would dump Qualcomm components – October 31, 2017
Qualcomm faces long odds in attempt to get ban of iPhone sales and manufacturing in China – October 17, 2017
Qualcomm files lawsuits seeking China iPhone ban, escalating Apple legal fight – October 13, 2017
Qualcomm fined record $773 million in Taiwan antitrust probe – October 11, 2017
Apple faces down Qualcomm, Ericsson over EU patent fees – October 2, 2017
Qualcomm loses two key rulings in its patent royalty fight with Apple – September 21, 2017
Apple’s A11 Bionic obliterates top chips from Qualcomm, Samsung and Huawei – September 18, 2017
U.S. judge rules Apple lawsuits against Qualcomm can proceed – September 8, 2017
Qualcomm CEO expects out of court settlement with Apple – July 18, 2017
Apple-Qualcomm legal dispute likely to be ‘long and ugly’ – July 7, 2017
Qualcomm wants court to block Apple from U.S. iPhone imports and sales – July 6, 2017
Judge rules U.S. FTC antitrust lawsuit against Qualcomm to proceed – June 27, 2017
Apple uses Supreme Court decision to escalate war against Qualcomm – June 20, 2017
Apple’s amended San Diego complaint against Qualcomm leaves no doubt: many billions at stake – June 20, 2017
Apple and others should buy up Qualcom patents and make them Frand
What the courts will point out (IMHO) is that the Qualcomm patents were always supposed to be FRAND, and that this (IMHO) scam of applying their royalties to non-Qualcomm IP means the company owes their customer quite a lot of money back. I’m not even considering the likely fines.
It’s no wonder Qualcomm’s CEO has been so reactionary and panicky realizing the easy stolen money will no longer be forthcoming and he will need to actually do his job and create products to see, instead of blackmailing other companies.
Of course Apple too is no slacker either when it comes to sleeping executives not doing the total job for their Mac customers, etc.. At the end of the day all these guys need a regular high voltage cattle prodding to get back to work than checking with glee their bank accounts and undeserved bonuses all day.
I wish we could take some beloved object of theirs that takes regular maintenance and upgrading and ignore it for 7 years to see how they’d like it.
In my opinion, the Steve Jobs “cattle prod” MO is missing to mederate Ive’s overly-creative urges such as flatness, anti-skewomorphism which is useful to give visul cues, and thinness. But, on the other hand, just how long can a company and individuals sustain urgency? Ive and Cook have seemingly reduced it to a level where too many workers feel comfortable which is good for the psyche but bad for the competitive market.
If only Qualcomm had quality management, they’d never have attempted to pull off their royalty fees on non-Qualcomm IP (IMHO) scam, Apple and Qualcomm would have continued an excellent relationship, no lawsuit warz would have occurred, and Qualcomm’s employees + stockholders wouldn’t have suffered.
It consistently amazes me how poorly companies are managed these days, either despite or because of all the plethora of MBA diploma mills. Short-term thinking = Long-Term disaster. It’s such a simple platitude, but so against the grain of today’s bad management training and the stock market’s parasitic attitude toward capitalism. 😛
Bad management is going to kill capitalism yet. Very sad. And they get extra pay to be extra bad.
Capitalism: The acquisition of capital at all costs as quickly as possible and hoarding it or spending it on self. Hope Apple does not fall victim to it.
Too late.