Qualcomm announced that Paul E Jacobs will step down the position of executive chairman of the Qualcomm Board of Directors.

The departure from the executive chairman position is happening at a time when Broadcom is stepping pressure on US authorities to receive support for its $117 billion bid for Qualcomm, a chipset company based in San Diego.

In facts, Broadcom had invited Paul E Jacobs to the combined board of Qualcomm after closing the largest technology deal in the world.

Broadcom is also looking at replacing six members from the 11-member Qualcomm board to take control over the management of the semiconductor company.

Qualcomm in a statement said Paul Jacobs has been a technology visionary contributing to the success of the chipset company.

Last week, Qualcomm announced that the company has postponed the shareholders meet to May from March 6. This is to accommodate the investigation of the US authorities into the intention of Broadcom.

Paul E Jacobs, who is also one of the family members of the founders of Qualcomm, served as chairman of the Board of Qualcomm since 2009, as executive chairman since 2014 and as a director since 2005. He served as chief executive officer from 2005 to 2014, group president of Qualcomm Wireless & Internet from 2001 to 2005, and as an executive vice president from 2000 to 2005.

Paul Jacobs holds a B.S. degree in electrical engineering and computer science, an M.S. degree in electrical engineering, and a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Paul Jacobs will continue to serve on the Qualcomm Board, but will not serve in an executive management capacity. Qualcomm will not have the role of executive chairman, which was established in 2014 as part of a leadership transition plan.

Qualcomm has named Jeffrey W Henderson, an independent Qualcomm director since 2016, to serve as non-executive chairman.