Qualcomm Inc. has appointed Paul E. Jacobs as its new chief executive officer. He succeeds his father, Irwin Jacobs, who will retain his position as chairman of the wireless company.
The company also appointed Steven R. Altman as president, replacing Tony Thornley, who is retiring.
“I am honored to be chosen by the board to lead Qualcomm into its third decade, working closely with Steve and the rest of our very talented management team,” said Paul Jacobs, 42, who will also be a member of the company’s board of directors.
Paul Jacobs has been involved in the company’s strategy and development of wireless data solutions since he joined it full time in 1990. He has been credited with an important role in developing BREW. He also ran the handset and integrated circuit division.
Jacobs also helped develop the Internet Protocol part of Qualcomm’s CDMA phones and “worked with operators and industry partners to develop technology which allowed CDMA devices to directly connect to the Internet,” said the company. “Dr. Jacobs first conceived of deploying Voice over IP as the basis for push-to-talk capabilities over CDMA networks, which became Qchat.”
The company announced a robust second-quarter projection. The chipmaker also increased its dividend rate from 7 cents to 9 cents per share of common stock. This raises the annual dividend rate to 36 cents per share of common stock.
