He’s Stared Down Activists and Apple, and Is Still in Charge

How did you move through up the ranks?

I got to work on the projects that in many respects were the company betting against itself. I ended up always finding myself in a leadership role on all those projects, the very important backup plans. If people were just looking to manage their career, they would avoid those things. But for me, I found them to be a real opportunity.

In some cases, I had a difficult time convincing some engineers to join the projects because they were like, “Our company doesn’t think that’s the No. 1 project.” And I said, “Yeah, but it will be in like five years.”

Is the situation with Apple destined to repeat itself again in a few years?

I don’t think so. It was a commercial dispute. There was a lot of money at stake. But these two companies know how to do this, and it ultimately played out on the courthouse steps. My guess is that the two companies will probably resolve stuff next time. I do not think it was good for either company, really.

And as you were dealing with Apple, your offer for NXP fell apart.

We really thought this thing was going to get done, but we had very bad timing. It was sitting in the middle of a trade dispute, and this was not the time for a big acquisition to get through. It became very clear that it wasn’t going to get through and we needed to move on, and we made the call.

What’s the justification for a huge stock buyback program when the company has also undergone layoffs in recent years?

People conflate buybacks with cash flow. Your ability to keep employees is really related to cash flow. That’s what allows you to invest in new projects and all that kind stuff. Having a strong balance sheet is really about, what can you do. That’s something that the investors own and you have to deploy it in a way that they get a return. And so the fact that a company has a strong balance sheet really doesn’t mean it’s immune from some of the things that are hard to do as a company.

Qualcomm has a lot of people who have very similar backgrounds to mine, lifers who have been there a very long time. So it’s very difficult for us all. Anyway, it’s something that hopefully is behind us.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/business/Steve-Mollenkopf-Qualcomm-corner-office.html?emc=rss&partner=rss