(Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc Chief Executive Officer Steven Mollenkopf sought government help to block an acquisition of the U.S. chip maker on fears of China’s technological ascendance, only to see his biggest deal thwarted by China.
FILE PHOTO: Steven Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm, attends the Wall Street Journal Digital conference in Laguna Beach, California, U.S. October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
Now the 49-year-old former electrical engineer is under investor pressure to show that he can go it alone.
Several Qualcomm shareholders interviewed by Reuters said they were willing to give Mollenkopf, who has been CEO since March 2014, only one to two more years to show he can diversify the company’s business beyond the fiercely competitive mobile phone sector that now accounts for the vast majority of its business and settle disputes with Apple Inc and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.
“Mollenkopf is in the ‘show me’ phase of his tenure. I think he has about two years,” said Tom Plumb, founder of Wisconsin Capital Management, which has 2 percent of its equity portfolio allocated to Qualcomm.
Mollenkopf faces the consequences of a bold gambit. Earlier this year, Qualcomm asked the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which scrutinizes deals for potential national security risks, to review a $121 billion hostile bid for Qualcomm by rival Broadcom Ltd.
It was an unusual move, because typically only agreed deals are submitted for CFIUS review. If CFIUS took this up, it would be the U.S. government, not Qualcomm shareholders, that would decide its fate.
Qualcomm’s maneuver worked. President Donald Trump blocked the deal in March, citing CFIUS’s concerns over a shift to Chinese dominance in 5G wireless technology, even though Broadcom, which at the time was based in Singapore, was not a Chinese
