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Irwin Jacobs co-founded Qualcomm in 1985 and served as its first CEO, leading the company through its formative years and dramatic growth.
He successfully guided the development of CDMA technology and its adoption as a key wireless standard, establishing Qualcomm's foundations.
However, the company struggled financially in the 1990s due to its large investments in CDMA research.
Under Jacobs' leadership, Qualcomm ultimately prevailed, seeing its technology proliferate globally, and grew into a major player in wireless technology with over $3 billion in revenue by 2000.
While Jacobs achieved immense commercial success, Qualcomm was plagued by many patent disputes over CDMA licensing terms during his later tenure.
In 2005, Jacobs stepped aside, leaving his son Paul Jacobs to take over as CEO during a period of rapid expansion in wireless services.
Taking over from his father Irwin, Paul Jacobs assumed Qualcomm's leadership at a pivotal time when mobile technology was rapidly advancing.
He steered the company to invest heavily in developing semiconductor products and 3G/4G technologies, laying vital groundwork for smartphones.
This visionary strategy bore fruit as revenues climbed steeply due to Qualcomm's key role powering the explosion of Android devices and mobile services.
However, Qualcomm soon attracted controversial, enormous antitrust fines in China and Europe for alleged anti-competitive practices in patent licensing.
While Jacobs achieved great financial success expanding Qualcomm's reach, some questioned if its rigid, litigious licensing model was sustainable long-term.
After presiding over much growth, Jacobs resigned in 2014, giving way to Steve Mollenkopf amidst a shifting, turbulent period for the wireless industry.
Taking the reins in a turbulent era, Mollenkopf steered Qualcomm's transition beyond smartphones into adjacent markets like automotive and IoT.
He led the pivotal, strategic acquisition of NXP Semiconductors to expand Qualcomm's offerings, though it ultimately fell through amid rising U.S.-China trade tensions.
Mollenkopf also opened new lines of business in PCs and data centers to attack Intel's dominance.
However, Qualcomm continued to be mired in bitter licensing disputes under his leadership, facing massive antitrust fines in Korea, Taiwan and an epic legal battle against Apple.
While financially successful, some questioned if Mollenkopf did enough to truly diversify Qualcomm's reliance on mobile patents.
After seven years governing relentless disruption, he passed the mantle to Cristiano Amon in 2021 at a crossroads requiring fresh vision.
Amon took charge at a pivotal junction as 5G was cresting and bounds of computing were blurring amid mobile, automotive and cloud convergence.
He moved to diversify Qualcomm beyond smartphones into adjacent growth markets like automotive processors and Wi-Fi networking.
However, Qualcomm remains mired in bitter conflicts over licensing and dominance of key standards, facing ongoing litigation with Apple and others.
Time will tell if Amon's pushes into new territories can outrun the storm clouds of disruption, commodification and political tensions on the horizon.
While the present remains profitable, many believe a reckoning of Qualcomm’s Role looms as software and new paradigms subsume everything.
The years ahead under Amon’s command will likely determine whether Qualcomm can profoundly transform or risks fading into the annals of tech history.
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