Qualcomm reported 60 per cent profit plunge in August – largely due to a slowdown in smartphone demand, leading to lower sales of its silicon for such devices.

At the time, CEO Cristiano Amon told investors, "We're taking a conservative view of the market, and we'll be proactively taking additional cost actions."

In the processor maker's results filing it foreshadowed "restructuring actions to enable continued investments in key growth and diversification opportunities" and explained that those activities would "consist largely of workforce reductions."

Reports suggest Qualcomm has filed a California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice – the paperwork required to inform the State Government of looming layoffs. Qualcomm's notice reportedly warns of 1,258 workers in California alone – 194 in the Bay Area and 1,064 in San Diego.

It is not just those who do real work who will be getting the chop, apparently, executives and even VPs will be seen leaving the building with their belongings and stolen whiteboard pens in old photocopy boxes.

The bulk of the numbers fired will be about 750 Qualcomm engineers and the axe will start to fall on 13 December when most should be putting up their Christmas trees.