Qualcomm eyeing S.Korea mobile, healthcare firms

SEOUL, April 8 (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) is looking at South Korean wireless and healthcare technology firms for possible investment, Chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs told Reuters on Wednesday.

Qualcomm, the world's biggest maker of chips used in mobile phones, is searching for South Korean companies to invest in this year under a government investment promotion programme.

"Certainly wireless technologies, but I've also said... healthcare technologies," Jacobs told Reuters in Seoul when asked about potential investment targets.

"There's a lot of different opportunities."

Speaking at a conference, Jacobs said Qualcomm's venture group was also investing in categories such as software, multimedia, hardware components and infrastructure.

Companies in which Qualcomm has previously taken stakes include British communications technology firm ip.access, Indian map data provider MapmyIndia, and U.S. wireless healthcare monitoring developer Triage Wireless.

Jacobs said healthcare services that combine sensors and wireless devices to enable real-time monitoring would be "a very important opportunity for us going forward."

Qualcomm has developed the CDMA wireless technology that has long been the dominant mobile phone standard in South Korea. The U.S. technology provider is also a key supplier of mobile phone chips to South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) and LG Electronics Inc (066570.KS), the world's No. 2 and No. 3 handset makers, respectively. (Reporting by Rhee So-eui; Editing by Marie-France Han and Jonathan Hopfner)