Qualcomm promotes Mollenkopf to CEO, ends Microsoft talk

By using Noel Randewich and Sruthi Ramakrishnan SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Qualcomm Inc, the world's biggest maker of cellular phone chips, abruptly named Chief Working Officer Steve Mollenkopf as chief executive on Friday, heading off the chance he might be poached to run Microsoft Corp. Mollenkopf had been in line to ultimately be successful CEO Paul Jacobs, the fifty one-12 months-outdated son of a Qualcomm co-founder, however that plan was once sped up in an effort to maintain the senior govt from leaving, Jacobs told Reuters in an interview. "Our executives are very proficient and really wanted," Jacobs said, when asked by way of Reuters whether or not the promotion was once associated to an offer from Microsoft. Jacobs and Mollenkopf declined to particularly speak about Microsoft or whether Mollenkopf had a job provide from the arena's greatest device firm, which is in quest of a candidate to switch retiring CEO Steve Ballmer.