Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) CEO Steve Mollenkopf is retiring and will be succeeded by chipmaker’s president, Cristiano Amon, on June 30, the company announced Tuesday.
The move by the 52-year-old Mollenkopf comes at a high point for the San Diego company, which is the biggest maker of cellular-connected chips and stands to benefit as more phones connect to 5G networks.
The company recently emerged from a thicket of challenges including business model scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission, a legal battle with Apple, and a hostile takeover attempt from rival Broadcom.
Since 2014, when Mollenkopf became CEO, Qualcomm stock has gained 96.7%, with an increase of 71.7% in the last year.
Qualcomm fought off legal issues with Apple and the FTC during Mollenkopf’s tenure. In 2019, it settled a lawsuit with Apple that questioned its business model of selling both chips and licenses for wireless technology. Apple paid Qualcomm $4.5 billion and Apple’s iPhone 12 uses Qualcomm’s 5G chips.
In 2018, Qualcomm received an unsolicited merger offer from Broadcom, a competing semiconductor maker that was based in Singapore at the time. The deal, which would have valued the combination at $117 billion, was scuttled by President Donald Trump, who cited national security concerns in blocking it.
Amon, 50, came up through the company’s mobile chip division, and has been second-in-command as president since 2018. Qualcomm said in November that it plans to ship 500 million mobile chips with 5G in 2021.
QCOM stock gained $1.93, or 1.3%, to $150.43.
