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This article originally appeared in Light Reading.
Silicon giant Qualcomm appears to be undertaking a major round of layoffs, according to a recent report from Bloomberg that cites data the company filed with the state of California. Qualcomm's headquarters are in San Diego.
According to the company's filing, it will cut 1,258 jobs in San Diego and Santa Clara, California. More than 750 of those cuts will come from its engineering ranks.
The company declined to comment on the overall size of the cuts, but a company representative told Seeking Alpha that the efforts are a response to "continued uncertainty" in the market, and that they're part of a "previously disclosed action."
"We'll be proactively taking additional cost actions to ensure Qualcomm is well positioned to deliver maximum value for stockholders in an uncertain environment," CEO Cristiano Amon said in August during the company's second quarter earnings conference call, according to Seeking Alpha. Amon did not provide specifics.
When questioned on the topic later in August at an investor event, Qualcomm CFO Akash Palkhiwala offered further hints: "We're willing to take action when the size of the market is different than what we expected at the beginning of the process. And so we're going to execute on that."
For his part, Qualcomm's Amon has been working feverishly to expand the company's business into areas like the Internet of Things (IoT) and the automotive sector as sales of smartphones – which represent Qualcomm's core business – continue to slow.
The company does have some progress to show for its efforts, including its pursuit of the silicon opportunity in the open radio access network (RAN) trend. Moreover, Qualcomm recently managed to ink an agreement with Apple that extends the companies' Snapdragon chipset partnership through 2026.
But an increasingly worrying slowdown in the global telecommunications market appears to have finally caught up to the company. Perhaps that's no surprise; wireless equipment maker Ericsson also warned this week of less-than-stellar financial results alongside a massive impairment on its Vonage acquisition.
Moreover, Qualcomm isn't alone in shedding jobs recently. As network operators work to cut spending, companies including Crown Castle, Juniper Networks, Cisco, Airspan and Cambium Networks have all reduced their workforce. Even network operators like Verizon and T-Mobile have gotten into the act. T-Mobile's recent cuts affected around 5,000 positions, or 7% of its workforce.
