Qualcomm Lays Off Temporary Workers

Qualcomm Inc. of San Diego said it laid off “a few hundred” temporary employees last week in its phone manufacturing unit, which is being sold to Kyocera of Japan for an undisclosed price. However, the wireless communications company, whose stock was among the best performing ones in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index last year, said the cutback is part of a seasonal post-holiday production dip and is not related to the unit’s sale. Before the layoff, Qualcomm employed about 2,000 workers in its phone manufacturing unit, and another 2,000 phone designers, engineers and others in its affiliated consumer products division. Companywide, Qualcomm employs about 9,000. Shares fell $17.25 to close at $162.06 on Nasdaq in a broad market sell-off.