The chief operating officer of U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc , Len Lauer, has resigned to become a chief executive of another company, Qualcomm said on Thursday.

Lauer, a telecommunications industry veteran, took the COO job at Qualcomm last year after Sanjay Jha left the position to become Motorola Inc co-CEO. He joined Qualcomm in 2006 after eight years at Sprint Nextel , where his stints included a COO role.

At Qualcomm, the world's biggest designer of chips used to power mobile phones, Lauer ran the units that focused on mobile content, services and emerging display technologies.

Qualcomm said its MEMS Technologies unit will now report to Steve Mollenkopf, an executive vice president. The remaining services groups will report to Qualcomm President Steve Altman, the company said in a statement.

The company did not say where Lauer was going.

Shares of the San Diego, California-based company closed Thursday at $46.10 on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Anupreeta Das, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

Qualcomm Electronics