"Talk of a split was rekindled earlier this year by activist investor Jana Partners LLC, which bought up stock in the company. Jana signed off on the strategic

"Talk of a split was rekindled earlier this year by activist investor Jana Partners LLC, which bought up stock in the company. Jana signed off on the strategic review, which was initiated in July and included a 15 percent employee reduction and a shakeup of the board." Once these activist investors gain a toehold, nothing but bad things happen to employees of the company. I suspect the layoff which occurred in November won't be the last. The investors will want to move the design and engineering arm of the company overseas, and keep the licensing arm in the states. This will mean no more design engineering at Qualcomm headquarters in San Diego. Maybe this is what's required to remain competitive against the Chinese company Mediatek, but the trend I'm seeing in US companies is to keep the HQ in the states with the CEO, Legal, MBA's, and marketing types, and outsource the R&D and design and manufacturing overseas. This type of company is what I call a "Toga Company".