Dr. Paul E. Jacobs has responded to Qualcomm’s decision on his board seat, stating that he feels it’s unfortunate that Qualcomm is attempting to remove him from the board at this point in time. Jacobs, a long-time board member for Qualcomm and the company’s former CEO, recently announced yesterday that he had plans to make an offer to buy them out. Qualcomm has stated that its decision not to re-nominate him for a seat on the board of directors on March 23 was in direct response to his interest in acquiring Qualcomm.
According to Jacobs, the interest in acquiring Qualcomm was to take the company private, which he feels is a necessary change that needs to be made so that Qualcomm can more easily meet certain goals, like speed up the process of innovation on products and bolster its position in the global marketplace with competitors in the chip market and other areas. Jacobs’ belief is that as a “standalone public company” it might be more of a challenge than it needs to be to achieve these goals and move the company forward, which led to the reasoning behind wanting to simplify things by making Qualcomm a private company.
In response to Qualcomm’s choice to essentially remove him from the board, Jacbos states that “There are real opportunities to accelerate Qualcomm’s innovation success and strengthen its position in the global marketplace. These opportunities are challenging as a standalone public company, and there are clear merits to exploring a path to take the company private in order to maximize the company’s long-term performance, deliver superior value to all stockholders, and bolster a critical contributor to American technology. I am glad the board is willing to evaluate such a proposal, consistent with its fiduciary duties to shareholders. It is unfortunate and disappointing they are attempting to remove me from the board at this time.”
All of this comes just days after President Trump officially blocked the takeover of Qualcomm from its rival Broadcom on grounds of national security risks, and after months of Broadcom attempting to buy Qualcomm out with numerous bids. Qualcomm, it would seem, has no real interest in being bought out and was quick to make a judgement call that it felt would be for the betterment of the company. That said it shouldn’t be too surprising that this was Qualcomm’s decision, after all the time it spent fending off Broadcom, only to learn that one of its board members had interest in the acquisition as well. Qualcomm has noted that should Jacobs make a proposal it will evaluate it.