Like Father, Like Son At Qualcomm

摘要

IN COLLEGE, PAUL E. JACOBS would have been voted least likely to start a fight. Tall and thin, with an easy smile, he likes to tell the story of how he met his wife while choosing players for a pickup volleyball game, then packed the rest of the team "with guys who weren't all that attractive." But in the 16 months since Jacobs, 43, took over from his father, Irwin, as chief executive of chipmaker Qualcomm Inc., he has stirred up a hornets' nest. Lawsuits have piled up faster than silicon chips at an assembly plant. Cell-phone giant Nokia Corp. claims Qualcomm is using its 1,800 patents for wireless devices to extract outsize royalties on current and next-generation products. Chip rivals, led by Broadcom Corp., say they are_ being denied licenses to key technolo-gies at reason-able rates. Jacobs and Qualcomm appear to their detractors every bit the bullies in mobile phones that Bill Gates and Microsoft Corp. once seemed to PC software companies. The squabbles probably won't block any new Net-surfing, TV-viewing cell phones from reaching the hands of consumers. But they could shape the financial fortunes of numerous tech outfits, starting with Qualcomm.