1 challenge for Qualcomm is that 5G roll out is running way way late. The HUGE infra- investments are taking time and with the global, US and EU economic uncertainties, the investments are sloooowwww.
SM bet on datacenter, automotive, IoT and host of other diversifications. Mostly they fizzled or blew up. Can anyone really think of an acquisition that proved "great" ? Nope, mostly bought up a company for 100's millions, trashed its product line and absorbed some little obscure bit of tech with near zero bottom line benefit. NXP was a fiasco. 2 years of legal/engineering costs and then a billion 'goodbye' payment. Shareholders should have SMs head for that alone.
SM always had 5GLeadership nest egg; but the golden egg is taking way too long to hatch.
Will it be too long for Qualcomm to wait as it burns through cash on litigation, buybacks, layoffs and hundreds of millions plowed into PR campaigns around the world? On a local, irrelevent level, what was the deal with plastering the Mira Mesa buses with logos ? Odd idea.