OCTOBER 14, 2023 — 1,258 EMPLOYEES GONE
The company has announced that it is eliminating 1,258 positions in its San Diego, California, and Santa Clara, California, operations.
According to the company, “750 of the positions being eliminated are from Qualcomm’s engineering ranks, including at levels from director down to technician. The rest of the cuts will come from a broad range of roles such as internal technical staff and accounting.”
According to Chief Financial Officer Akash Palkhiwala, “We had previously communicated we would evaluate additional cost actions as the environment continues to evolve. Until we see sustained signs of improving fundamentals, our operating framework does not assume an immediate recovery.”
JUNE 25, 2023 — 415 EMPLOYEES
Qualcomm laid off 415 employees located at its San Diego headquarters as the mobile chip firm seeks to reduce expenses and realign headcounts to counter a slowdown in smartphone sales.
MAY 1, 2023 — 5% REDUCTION IMPACTS 2550 EMPLOYEES
The company is said to be planning a 5% reduction in its workforce, impacting around 2,550 employees. The formal announcement is expected during the company’s quarterly results scheduled for May 3, 2023. 20% of the layoffs will impact the mobile division as a response to reduced smartphone sales.
DECEMBER 23, 2022 - LAYOFFS CONTINUE
The company is laying off 153 San Diego, California employees as part of a cost-cutting initiative.
According to Chief Executive Cristiano Amon, “We have planned spending reductions across our mature product areas and SG&A (sales, general and administrative functions) to fund our diversification. We are continuing to evaluate additional actions, and we are prepared and committed to making further reductions to operating expenses as needed.”
DECEMBER 9, 2018 - LAYOFFS CONTINUE
According to to WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) notices filed in California and North Carolina, the company plans to eliminate 269 jobs, 125 at its San Diego headquarters and 144 in its Raleigh, North Carolina data center. Many of the layoffs are linked to the Qualcomm Life division, the wireless connectivity initiative targeted at the medical industry.
An estimated 1,500 workers were laid off to date in 2018.
A company spokesperson noted, “While this activity impacts a very small percentage of our workforce, we know a workforce reduction of any size affects not only those employees who are part of the reduction but their families, co-workers, and the community.”
JULY 26, 2018 -- QUALCOMM KILLS NXP SEMICONDUCTOR DEAL
Qualcomm apparently has killed the NXP Semiconductors deal for $44 billion due to Chinese regulators missing Qualcomm's self-imposed deadline. While Qualcomm will have to pay NXP a break-up fee of $2 billion, it appears that Qualcomm is planning to spend approximately $30 billion in a stock buy-back that will deliver additional value to Qualcomm shareholders.
APRIL 20, 2018 — Original post ...
As a consequence of a promise to investors to reduce spending by $1 billion to compensate for reduced revenues, it appears that San Diego, California-based Qualcomm, the world's largest maker of phone processors and chipsets, will be laying off up to 1,231 workers.
Qualcomm’s highly public battle with Broadcom, as I detailed in my post, Battle of the Bits: Broadcom versus Qualcomm, resulted in the announcement of a cost reduction plan that is now taking effect.
In a statement to the public, Qualcomm’s spokesperson said ...
"As part of the cost reduction plan announced in January, Qualcomm is conducting a reduction of our full-time and temporary workforce. A workforce reduction such as this one affects not only those employees who are part of the reduction, but their families, co-workers, and the community. We recognize this and have offered affected employees supportive severance packages to reduce the impact of this transition on them. We first evaluated non-headcount expense reductions, but we concluded that a workforce reduction is needed to support long-term growth and success, which will ultimately benefit all our stakeholders."
Employees are often the most replaceable and fungible elements of any cost reduction plan; even if to replace older, more costly employees with younger ones.
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?