Earlier this month, after being rejected for a proposal to acquire Qualcomm, Broadcom nominated a slate of 11 members for the director’s role at Qualcomm’s 2018 Annual Meeting to replace the Qualcomm’s existing board of directors. However, Qualcomm today announced that it has rejected director nominees assembled by Broadcom.
Qualcomm says that following the recommendation of the Board’s Governance Committee has decided to unanimously reject all the 11 members that Broadcom and Silver Lake Partners have nominated. In addition, the chipset maker today also filed its preliminary proxy statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with Qualcomm’s upcoming 2018 Annual Meeting.
Qualcomm believes that Broadcom cannot bring in the required incremental skills or expertise to the Qualcomm Board and the company is also nominating its own 11 incumbent directors for re-election at the 2018 Annual Meeting who are Barbara T. Alexander, Jeffrey W. Henderson, Thomas W. Horton, Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, Ann M. Livermore, Harish Manwani, Mark D. McLaughlin, Steve Mollenkopf, Clark T. Randt, Jr., Dr. Francisco Ros and Anthony J. “Tony” Vinciquerra.
The company clarifies that the existing board members have a clear understanding of how things like global IP/licensing, semiconductor business, design and execution of Qualcomm’s strategy, including driving its leadership in mobile, IoT, automotive, edge computing and networking, as well as the coming transition to 5G function.
Qualcomm points out the lack of certainty of Broadcom, how its proposal dramatically undervalues Qualcomm and the lack of its commitment to resolve the serious regulatory issues inherent in its proposal as shortcomings and concerns. Qualcomm directors are elected annually and 9 of the 11 directors are independent, including 4 directors added in the last 3 years.