Qualcomm saw a 56 percent year-over-year drop in its Q4 net incom...

billion. “The reduced visibility in the marketplace makes forecasting future inventory levels more difficult,” CEO Paul Jacobs said on a conference call late Wednesday. “Accurately predicting when a recovery will begin is extremely challenging,” he said. “The current consensus is that this recession will be deeper and longer than previously anticipated,” he said. On DTV transition, Jacobs said he expects further developments on the DTV delay bill (S-328) and the company continues to request that any legislation retain the February 17 date for nine TV stations in four markets -- Boston, Houston, Miami and San Francisco. The House Republicans blocked the DTV delay bill Wednesday (CD Jan 29 p1). Qualcomm opposed any delays in DTV transition, having spent hundreds of millions of dollars on its own DTV technology MediaFLO, he said. “This would allow Qualcomm to offer its MediaFLO service to an additional 40 million consumers,” he said. The equipment vendor expects revenue in Q1 to come in between $2.25 billion and $2.45 billion, it said. Operating income is expected to decline between 26 and 38 percent for the period. The company wasn’t considering “widespread layoffs,” though it was making “workforce adjustments” as necessary, particularly among its “contingent workforce,” Jacobs said. The vendor is prioritizing its research-and-development efforts in case of a prolonged downturn, the CEO said, and had a variety of cost-cutting opportunities to consider. The company’s chip sales depend on the buildout of 3G networks, which should come to fruition in the second half of the year, Jacobs said. In other trends that would favor Qualcomm, he mentioned carriers’ subsidies aimed at promoting smartphones, 20 Android products in the pipeline among handset vendors worldwide, Snapdragon design wins and HSPA and LTE deployments.