The outfit made $6.04 billion in revenue, while Wall Street thought it would be $5.93 billion.

This is even though Qualcomm's operating profit dropped 96 percent year on year to break even as Apple and its partners continued to withhold royalty payments.

The company noted that it didn't record any licence revenues from Apple in the first quarter because of its continued dispute with the iPhone maker. In the first quarter of last year, Qualcomm generated $740 million in royalty fees from fruit related products.

Ironically, the chipmaker also highlighted a $6 billion charge related to the recent change in US tax codes, and an additional $1.2 billion fine charged by the European Commission over illegal payments made to Apple.

It seems that Qualcomm was in the tricky stage of doing what Apple wanted, gets fined by the authorities for doing it and Apple still refuses to pay its bills. We wonder why Qualcomm cares about doing business with Jobs’ Mob.

Qualcomm was able to offset some of those losses by growing its wireless chip business and diversifying into new areas, like connected devices and automotive. Its chip unit's revenue increased 13 percent to $4.6 billion, while earnings before tax jumped 32 percent year-over-year to $955 million.

Still Apple will be miffed with the results. It must have been hoping that profits would fall and share prices would tank, making it easier for its chum Broadcom to take over. Qualcomm's shares remained the same.

Second quarter revenue guidance came in the range of $4.8 billion to $5.6 billion, slightly below-average street estimate of $5.6 billion.

Qualcomm also disclosed that it's expanding its cross-license agreement with Samsung over mobile devices and infrastructure equipment. As part of the deal, Samsung agreed to withdraw its interventions in Qualcomm's appeal against an $868 million fine in South Korea.

Qualcomm's licensing business generated $887 million in earnings before tax, down 42 percent year-over-year. Its licensing business, which typically generates the bulk of its revenue, is now making less profit than its chip business.

To address those concerns, Qualcomm said in a recent investor presentation that its adjusted earnings per share for the fiscal year 2019 could jump to the range of $6.75 to $7.50 if the royalty dispute settles and the NXP deal goes through.