Paul Jacobs, once CEO of Qualcomm (QCOM), and up till this month its executive chairman, is talking to “several global investors,” including SoftBank (9984JP), about buying out Qualcomm, according to a report this evening by the Financial Times’s James Fontanelle-Khan, Tom Braithwaite, and Arash Massoudi, citing multiple unnamed sources.
Jacobs, who was replaced on March 9th as chair by independent director Jeffrey W. Henderson, amidst the company’s battle to fend of Broadcom (AVGO), has spoken to members of the board about his intentions, the authors write.
Broadcom this week was forced to relinquish its hostile bid for Qualcomm after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the bid to be ended, citing U.S. national security concerns.
Qualcomm has been in the process of buying fellow chip maker NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) for over a year now.