The company’s board of directors has also approved a 14% increase in its quarterly cash dividend from $0.42 per share to $0.48 per share, effective March 25. The $15 billion buyback programme replaces its previous one, which had a $2.1 billion authorisation remaining.
The company plans to repurchase $10 billion of shares within 12 months and commit to returning at least 75% of its free cash flow to shareholders through stock repurchases and dividends.
"Our business continues to generate substantial operating cash flow. Today’s announcement represents an important step in returning that cash to our owners while still preserving the strategic flexibility needed to drive stockholder value through growth," said Steve Mollenkopf, its CEO.
Qualcomm returned $7.1 billion, or 93% of its free cash flow, to shareholders in the year ended September 2014.
