Qualcomm said today that CEO Paul Jacobs is succeeding his father, co-founder Irwin Jacobs, as chairman of the San Diego wireless giant. Irwin Jacobs, 75, started the digital wireless company with Andy Viterbi and a handful of others in 1985 and served as CEO for 20 years. He plans to remain on the board.
The transition is effective immediately, according to the company, and reflects the measured change that Qualcomm has undertaken in shifting to its next generation of leadership. Paul Jacobs, 46, was named as Qualcomm’s CEO in 2005—after heading the company’s wireless and Internet group. He joined the company in 1988, fresh from getting his doctorate in electrical engineering from UC Berkeley.
In its release, Qualcomm said Paul Jacobs has been the primary driver of Qualcomm’s focus on wireless data services and the expanding possibilities of next-generation technologies for mobile entertainment and computing and on-the-go information.
Earlier in the day, Qualcomm signaled the strength of its balance sheet by announcing the company will increase its dividend to 17 cents a share (from 16 cents) for quarterly dividends payable after March 27th.
Author: Bruce V. Bigelow
In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here.
Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.
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