Qualcomm Will Slash 15% Of Its Workforce

Qualcomm will lay off 15% of it employees, an estimated 4,700 people, as part of a restructuring plan that may include spinning off non-strategic parts of the company. The mobile giant announced the plan to cut $1.4 billion in annual costs by 2016 along with its quarterly results which were down significantly but in line with expectations.

Revenues for Qualcomm's fiscal third quarter were $5.8 billion, down $1 billion year-over-year and $1.1 billion sequentially. Net profit was down a whopping 47% from the prior year to $1.2 billion.

Amid an industry slowdown in smartphone growth, the company forecast its fourth quarter revenue would be down 15-30% from the prior year to $4.7 to $5.7 billion. It estimated it will sell 170 to 190 million of its MSM cellphone chip sets in the period, down 19 to 28% from last year.

The results amount to the first big downturn for the company that has been a darling of the go-go mobile era. Qualcomm attributed the decline to a decrease in licensing revenues, a burn off in inventory and reduced demand for premium chip sets from a vertical customer -– likely Samsung -- as well as lower than expected sales in China.

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