Advertisement

Qualcomm has no plans to spin off chip business at present: chairman

A shadow is cast near a Qualcomm logo at the 2015 Computex exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan, June 2, 2015. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang

SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc has no plans to spin off its chips business at present, Executive Chairman Paul Jacobs said on Tuesday, despite recent investor pressure to do so amid intensifying industry competition. Hedge fund Jana Partners said in April Qualcomm should spin off the chip business from its patent-licensing business to improve shareholder value, calling the chip business "essentially worthless". "We've had that discussion for a long time, many years the board has looked at it but we still think the synergies of having the businesses together outweighs the dissynergies," Jacobs told Reuters on the sidelines of an American Chamber of Commerce event in Seoul. Jacobs said, however, that the company is always evaluating its options and that the situation could change in the future. (Reporting by Sohee Kim; Writing by Se Young Lee; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)