>The bump came in a year when Qualcomm reported full-year revenue of $44.3 billion, up 14 percent, but net income plunged 45 percent to $5.5 billion after the company booked a hefty non-cash tax charge tied to changes in US tax law. In other words, sales were up, profits went backwards, and executive pay kept climbing anyway.
15% more pay for 14% more revenue doesn't sound as crazy as the headline. The real question is how do you mess up this badly despite growing? Did they over invest into acquiring unprofitable AI companies?
They didn't mess up badly. They choose to take a one time non-cash tax charge of $5.7 billion which will allow them to take advantage of a recent change in tax law to achieve a lower effective tax rate and lower cash tax payments going forward. Meta did something similar taking a $15.9 billion non-cash tax charge to take advantage of the same changed tax laws. Many other companies have already or are expected to do the same.
