Qualcomm Board Meets Friday to Discuss Fate of Jacobs, WSJ Says

(Bloomberg) -- Qualcomm Inc.’s board is meeting Friday and on the agenda is the fate of director Paul Jacobs, the former chief executive officer and son of the company’s founder, the Wall Street Journal reported, without citing its sources.

Jacobs, who was stripped of his executive chairman status last week, has been seeking investors for a management buyout of Qualcomm, according to the Financial Times. The idea has been been largely dismissed by analysts, because it would be expensive and could by blocked by the U.S. government, like Broadcom Ltd.’s failed bid for Qualcomm.

Qualcomm’s board is discussing Jacobs in a regularly scheduled meeting, and could make an announcement later Friday, the Journal reported. The board may decide not to take any action now, the newspaper added. A spokeswoman for Qualcomm didn’t immediately return requests for comment.

Jacobs was already in a precarious position with the board after a lengthy battle to fend off Broadcom. Early counts in a board vote tied to the Broadcom bid showed that many Qualcomm shareholders had voted to replace several Qualcomm directors, including Jacobs and Chief Executive Officer Steve Mollenkopf. U.S. President Donald Trump blocked the deal earlier this week.

To contact the reporter on this story: Molly Schuetz in New York at mschuetz9@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz, Alistair Barr

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