Qualcomm COO Mollenkopf Replaces CEO Paul Jacobs

By Vivek

| Published: Saturday, December 14, 2013, 11:22 [IST]

Qualcomm, a chip making company which recently announced its latest Snapdragon 401 chip targeted to the emerging markets, has all of a sudden taken a surprising move. The company has promoted the Chief Operating Officer Steve Mollenkopf as its chief executive just yesterday.

Qualcomm COO Mollenkopf Replaces CEO Paul Jacobs

According to Reuters, Mollenkopf had been in the line to eventually succeed CEO Paul Jacobs but that plan was sped up in order to keep the senior executive from leaving. Mollenlopf who has been with the company since 1994 has led QCT, the company's wireless chipset business division. He is also responsible for the acquisition of Atheros in 2011 for $3.1 billion.

The senior executive of Qualcomm, Mollenkopf was also being pursued by Microsoft as a potential successor to Steve Ballmer. Thus the speeding of the promotion plans doesn't seem to be a co-incidence. However, Qualcomm has already made the senior executive convinced, it seems. Hence Mollenkopf will be replacing Paul Jacobs soon after the company's annual shareholder meeting. He will take up the position of CEO effective from 4th March 2014.

On the other hand, 51 year old Paul Jacobs, son of Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs, will retain the position of executive chairman of the company.

Apart from the company's internal affairs, Qualcomm has also unveiled their latest Snapdragon 805 chipset as well. The Chip is capable of supporting a UHD video. Moreover, the chip will also allow the smartphones to capture and play 4K videos and offers 40% better graphics than the current Snapdragon 800.