((Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer https://bit.ly/rtrsauto)) by Jonathan Stempel
Qualcomm QCOM.O agreed to pay $75 million to end a lawsuit in which shareholders accused the chipmaker of defrauding them by concealing its anticompetitive sales and licensing practices.
A preliminary cash settlement was filed Tuesday in San Diego federal court.
It must be approved by U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta, who certified the lawsuit as a class action in March 2023.
Qualcomm and six individual defendants, including former chief executives Paul Jacobs and Steven Mollenkopf, have denied wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement.
The San Diego company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shareholders accused Qualcomm of artificially inflating its stock price between February 2012 and January 2017 by repeatedly describing its chip sales and technology licensing as separate businesses, when in reality Qualcomm lumped them together to stifle competition.
In January 2017, the Federal Trade Commission and Apple AAPL.O separately sued Qualcomm over its alleged efforts to monopolize the market for baseband processors, a type of chip used in cell phones.
Apple said Qualcomm was using its monopoly position to overcharge for chips and demand onerous and costly terms for technology licenses.
Qualcomm called the allegations baseless, but its stock price fell 13% in the first full trading day following Apple’s lawsuit.
The case is In re Qualcomm Inc Securities Litigation, US District Court, Southern District of California, No. 17-00121.
