, Columnist
Qualcomm’s Day of Reckoning May Have Arrived
A federal judge’s ruling strikes at the heart of the chipmaker’s business model.
Plan A has been under attack for some time. Is there a Plan B?
Photographer: Brent Lewin/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A U.S. federal judge may have done what Apple and a succession of foreign governments couldn’t do: Force Qualcomm Inc. to change how it does business.
Concluding a long-running legal case, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said late Tuesday that the San Diego chip company, whose products are essential building blocks for modern smartphones, broke the law by squashing competition in important corners of industry and tying sales of its chips to fees for Qualcomm’s technology patents.