QUALCOMM Commits $500 Million to Strategic Venture Investments; QUALCOMM Ventures
To Promote CDMA and Wireless Internet Adoption
Story Filed: Tuesday, November 14, 2000 7:31 AM EST
SAN DIEGO, Nov 14, 2000 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- QUALCOMM Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), pioneer and world
leader of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital wireless technology, today announced the formation of
QUALCOMM Ventures, an organization that will make strategic investments in startup companies globally to support the
adoption of CDMA and drive usage of the wireless Internet. QUALCOMM is making a $500 million commitment to this
strategic initiative that will be invested over a period of four years.
QUALCOMM's experience in telecommunications and the Internet uniquely positions the Company to lead the convergence
of these industries through strategic investments in a variety of market segments. Companies receiving investments from
QUALCOMM Ventures will benefit from access to QUALCOMM's research and development expertise, engineering
resources, business and strategic relationships, and other portfolio companies.
QUALCOMM Ventures will be managed by Jeff Jacobs, senior vice president of business development for QUALCOMM.
In his current role, Jacobs is responsible for QUALCOMM's investments, strategic partnerships and new business
opportunities. Previously, Jacobs helped guide QUALCOMM's Internet efforts after founding and managing
QUALCOMM's Eudora Products. He also helped grow the Company's OmniTRACS business (QUALCOMM Wireless
Business Solutions) to be the industry's leading provider of wireless data solutions. Most recently, Jacobs has led the
Company's 1xEV (HDR) activities. An advisory committee, comprised of senior executives from QUALCOMM with
extensive technical expertise, industry knowledge and corporate relationships, will guide the investment strategy and
participate in venture development activities.
"The convergence of wireless technology and the Internet has created opportunities for new products, applications and
services, and we look forward to helping drive these innovations," said Jeff Jacobs. "QUALCOMM Ventures will focus on
strategic investments in promising, young startup companies that can deliver these new capabilities and accelerate CDMA
usage worldwide."
QUALCOMM Ventures will target strategic investments within the following areas: communications devices and applications;
wireless communications components and infrastructure; Internet infrastructure, content and services; and, enabling and
complementary technologies. Several companies have already benefited from QUALCOMM's extensive technical expertise,
industry relationships and demonstrated leadership in bringing new ideas to market. QUALCOMM's past and present
strategic investments include AirFiber, Inc., Front Porch Communications, Inc., Graviton, Inc., GTRAN, Inc., HAHT
Commerce, Inc., Handspring, Inc., ideaEDGE Ventures, inviso, Inc., ignition Corporation, PacketVideo Corporation,
PayPal, Phone.com, Inc., RF Micro Devices, Inc. and SkyDesk.
"QUALCOMM has enabled GTRAN's deployment of its wireless multimedia access products by providing strategic
marketing insight and engineering development support," said Deepak Mehrotra, founder and chief operating officer,
GTRAN. "GTRAN has leveraged QUALCOMM's relationships with major carriers globally to understand customer
requirements and deployment schedules. Our engineers, with access to the latest technology developments at QUALCOMM,
are working on next-generation data-centric CDMA applications."
"The PacketVideo and QUALCOMM relationship represents the combination of two best-of-breed technology providers
that will be facilitating a complete wireless solution for the delivery of rich media to handheld devices," said Dr. James
Brailean, president, chief technology officer and co-founder of PacketVideo. "Our relationship with QUALCOMM ensures
that PacketVideo's wireless media technology will be optimized for the global leader in CDMA chipset technology, offering
mobile users of CDMA devices the richness of sight, sound, animation and moving pictures."
The size of each strategic investment is expected to be up to $10 million. QUALCOMM Ventures will consider participating
in a variety of private financing rounds, with a preference for early-to mid-stage private ventures. Separate from
QUALCOMM Ventures, QUALCOMM Incorporated will continue to make larger strategic investments in public
companies, joint ventures and wireless carriers to promote CDMA usage worldwide. These investments have included
Korea Telecom Freetel, Leap Wireless International, Inc., NetZero, Inc., Shinsegi Mobile, VeloCom Inc., Wingcast and
Wireless Knowledge, Inc.
For more information on the application process, please visit the QUALCOMM Ventures web site at
qualcomm.com.
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