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Founding of Qualcomm
Qualcomm was founded in 1985 by MIT alumnus and UC San Diego professor Irwin M. Jacobs, USC and MIT alumnus Andrew Viterbi, Harvey White, Adelia Coffman, Andrew Cohen, Klein Gilhousen, and Franklin Antonio. Jacobs and Viterbi had previously founded Linkabit. Qualcomm's first products and services included the OmniTRACS satellite locating and messaging service, used by long-haul trucking companies, developed from a product called Omninet owned by Parviz Nazarian and Neil Kadisha. -
first CDMA-based cellular base station
In 1990, Qualcomm began the design of the first CDMA-based cellular base station, based upon calculations derived from the CDMA-based OmniTRACS satellite system. This work began as a study contract from AirTouch which was facing a shortage of cellular capacity in Los Angeles. -
Qualcomm acquired Eudora
Qualcomm acquired Eudora (email client), a PC mail client that could be used with the Omnitracs system. The acquisition also associated a widely-used email client with a company that was little-known at the time, Qualcomm. -
CDMA cell phones
Qualcomm began to manufacture CDMA cell phones, base stations, and chips. The initial base stations were not reliable and the technology was licensed wholly to Nortel in return for their work in improving the base station switching. The first CDMA technology was standardized as IS-95. Qualcomm has since helped to establish the CDMA2000, WCDMA and LTE cellular standards. -
Qualcomm paid $18 million
Qualcomm paid $18 million for the naming rights to the Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, renaming it to Qualcomm Stadium. The naming rights will belong to Qualcomm until 2017. -
Qualcomm sold its base station business
Qualcomm sold its base station business to Ericsson, and later, sold its cell phone manufacturing business to Kyocera. The company was now focused on developing and licensing wireless technologies and selling ASICs that implement them. -
set a $1,000 price target on Qualcomm stock
Walter Piecyk opened coverage with a "buy" rating and set a $1,000 price target on Qualcomm stock. -
acquired SnapTrack
Qualcomm acquired SnapTrack, the inventor of the assisted-GPS system for cellphones, branded as gpsOne. The Snaptrack patents describe how a cellphone can acquire a GPS signal rapidly using timing information sent from the base station. This reduces the searching time for geolocation from minutes down to roughly one second. -
acquired Trigenix Ltd
Qualcomm acquired Trigenix Ltd, a mobile user interface (UI) software development company, based in Cambridge, UK. After integrating the company, Qualcomm re-branded their interface markup language, TrigML, and its accompanying integrated development environment (IDE) as uiOne. -
Qualcomm acquired Elata
Qualcomm acquired Elata, a pioneer in the development of over-the-air (OTA) delivery technology for wireless applications and content since 2000. This acquisition extended Qualcomm’s reach into Europe and reaffirmed its support for open wireless standards. -
acquired Berkana Wireless
Qualcomm acquired Berkana Wireless, a specialist in RF CMOS solutions founded in 2001. This acquisition helped enable Qualcomm to more quickly deliver new, highly integrated RF CMOS solutions to its CDMA2000 and WCDMA customers. -
Steve Mollenkopf has been promoted to president
Qualcomm announced that Steve Mollenkopf has been promoted to president and chief operating officer of the company, effective November 12
