A company does not become or maintain greatness via financial engineering. Look at once mighty G E
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Spending ~85% of current Q cash assets over next 18 months to buy ~1/3rd of outstanding shares (at current price) makes perfect sense to Finance.
So afterwards Q will have less than $10B in cash (compared to $35B now).
Which means less interest:investment income each quarter, less flexibility to acquire, less ability to weather macro downturns, less to put into future R&D when needed
Can you see the brilliance in this plan?
Cutting heads to lower cost structure due to lower revenues. No Apple, no Samsung means no premium tier chipset sales, Chinese OEMs second sourcing spells doom for high tier, without chip sales who pays royalties, no adjacent business growth, yawn just waiting for a pink slip.
QCOM 35.7
12 months from now Qualcomm will be trying to figure out why 5G is not ramping up as fast as they hoped.
Consistent with our previously announced Plan B alternative, following the termination of the agreement, our board has authorized the purchase of up to $30 billion of stock, replacing the existing $10 billion authorization. We intend to execute on a large majority of the authorization by the end of fiscal 2019. Our repurchases will be funded almost entirely from balance sheet cash, and we will update you on the specific plans as we come to market. Our fourth quarter guidance does not include any impact of this new stock repurchase program or the impact of the $2 billion termination fee. The termination fee is expected to have approximately a $1.35 impact on GAAP earnings when recorded.