Qualcomm Shares Fall on News of Slow Sales

Shares of wireless technology company Qualcomm Inc. fell about 5% after a report that a key customer, China Unicom Ltd., is adding customers far more slowly than expected in the world’s biggest market for mobile phones.

China Unicom, which in January launched a service using Qualcomm’s Code Division Multiple Access technology, said the service had 785,000 customers at the end of May, less than 20% of its year-end target of 4.6 million to 4.7 million subscribers.

Qualcomm, whose wireless system primarily is used in the United States and Asia, said earlier this month it expected China to have 3 million to 4 million CDMA subscribers by the end of this year.

Its shares fell $1.80 to $26.33 on Nasdaq.