Qualcomm CEO to give $100 mln to San Diego Symphony

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Irwin Jacobs, the founder and chief executive of wireless technology company Qualcomm Inc. , plans to give $100 million to the San Diego Symphony, making the once-bankrupt orchestra one of the richest in the country, a spokeswoman for the symphony said Friday.

The donation, to be formally announced on Monday, will be given in two parts: $50 million immediately, and a $50 million endowment to be given after the death of Jacobs and his wife.

Jacobs, 68, a former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, started Qualcomm in 1985. The San Diego-based company owns all of the relevant patents behind the CDMA wireless telephone technology, which holds a dominant market position in the United States. Jacobs has supported the 83-piece orchestra in the past. Last November, he gave it a matching grant of $300,000 and was one of the major donors who helped the symphony emerge from bankruptcy and return to the stage in October 1998.

The San Diego Symphony filed for bankruptcy in May 1996 and performances were canceled and musicians idled for almost two and a half years. Jack McAuliffe, vice president of the American Symphony Orchestra League, told the Los Angeles Times the gift would be among the largest ever for a symphony and would leave the San Diego organization as one of the most well-funded.

The San Diego Symphony had ticket sales of $2.7 million in its fiscal 2001, topping sales of $2.3 million in fiscal 2000. Conductor Jung-Ho Pak, who has won acclaim for an adventurous approach that has seen chefs, flamenco dancers and electric guitarists on stage with the orchestra, is due to leave when his four-year contract expires this year.

Qualcomm has a market capitalization of $35.5 billion and Jacobs had a stake of about 2.5 percent of the company as of November, worth some $900 million.