Qualcomm has now confirmed Paul E. Jacobs will not be re-nominated to the Qualcomm board when the board reconvines at the company’s annual stockholders meeting, currently due to take place on March 23, 2018. Ending what has been a long tenure at the company which had up until recently seen Jacobs operating as Executive Chairman of the company.
As per the announcement, Qualcomm thanked Jacobs for his support over the years while also paying tribute to his contribution. However, the announcement did not attempt to hide the fact Jacobs lack of re-nomination was directly due to Jacobs’ interest in purchasing Qualcomm. Up until now, a Jacobs-related Qualcomm buyout had only been the subject of media reports. Although that seem to have now changed with this announcement confirming Jacobs had notified the board of an intention to acquire Qualcomm. On that point, the announcement did also make it clear that if, and when, a proposal is made by Jacobs, it will be taken under consideration by the company. Although in the meantime Qualcomm says it will remain focused on operating as an independent company.
In spite of the lack of confirmed details before now this has been an extremely fast-moving situation. For example, up until only last week Jacobs was Qualcomm’s chairman. A position understood to have been lost as a result of the – at the time – attempted Qualcomm acquisition by Broadcom. However, in the short space of time since Jacobs was replaced as Chairman, President Donald Trump intervened by forbidding a purchase attempt by Broadcom, citing national security concerns. This seemingly has led to the current situation where Jacob’s is now actively pursuing an opportunity to take the company private. The reports on this only first emerged yesterday with the suggestion Jacobs was reaching out to various investors for backing, including SoftBank. All of which has been occuring in parallel to Qualcomm’s own attempt to complete its purchase of NXP Semiconductors. As a result of this latest development, Qualcomm confirmed the director position held by Jacobs will not be filled by someone else, resulting in the number of directors due to be confirmed on March 23 shrinking from eleven to ten.