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March 17 (Reuters) – Smartphone chip designer Qualcomm (QCOM) on Tuesday unveiled a $20 billion stock buyback \u200cprogram as it looks to take advantage \u200cof a steep drop in its share price, which has \u200bbeen hit by a global memory supply crunch that is expected to slow handset manufacturing.<\/p>\n
Shares of the company rose more than 3% on Tuesday, after \u200ca year-to-date drop \u2060of over 24% as the widespread shortage of memory chips hit Qualcomm’s customers, \u2060mainly smartphone makers.<\/p>\n
The new buyback is in addition to its existing $2.1 billion share buyback plan, the \u200bcompany said, \u200badding that Qualcomm \u200bis also increasing its \u200cquarterly cash dividend by more than 3% to 92 cents per share from 89 cents.<\/p>\n
“We remain focused on stockholder returns and executing on our ongoing diversification opportunities,” CEO Cristiano Amon said.<\/p>\n
Qualcomm is \u200camong the largest smartphone chip \u200bproviders in the world, counting \u200bmajor Android players \u200band iPhone-maker Apple among its customers.<\/p>\n
But \u200cit has been increasingly \u200bdiversifying its business, \u200battempting to reduce its dependence on the smartphone industry by working to enter the \u200bbooming data center \u200cchip and autonomous vehicle markets.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Arsheeya \u200bBajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra \u200bEluri and Anil D’Silva)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n