SiliconBeat

John Gifford, who founded analog chip maker Maxim Integrated Products and served as its chief executive until his retirement in 2007, passed away Sunday of an apparent heart attack, according to a company press release distributed Monday.

Gifford was born in 1941 and grew up in Los Angeles. After graduating from UCLA in 1963 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, he worked for Fairchild Semiconductor, first in sales in L.A. and later in marketing in Silicon Valley.

An industry legend, Gifford was one of the many engineers Read the rest of this entry »

Intersil, the Milpitas chip maker, said Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner has resigned  “to pursue another opportunity.” His replacement, effective immediately, is the company’s current corporate controller, Jonathan Kennedy,  who joined Intersil in 2004 as director of finance, according to a regulatory filing this afternoon.

Zinser, who joined Intersil in 1999 as its corporate treasurer and became CFO in July 2005, will remain an employee of the company through a transition period. No word yet on what or where his new opportunity is.

Intersil’s former chief executive, Richard Beyer, also quit earlier this year citing the chance to “pursue another opportunity.” He was named CEO of Freescale Semiconductor, an Austin-based chip maker focused on analog devices. In October, Beyer told Bloomberg News that he thought chances for a chip recovery in the second half of next year “optimistic”.

Add Intersil to a growing list of Silicon Valley companies reacting to the “current economic conditions” by laying off employees. The Milpitas chip maker announced a nine percent reduction in its “global workforce” — that translates into 140 people — as part of the steps its taking “to improve its competitive position”.

The company will offer Read the rest of this entry »

Richard Beyer quit being chief executive at the Milpitas chip maker Intersil as of last
Sunday. The next day the company and he agreed that he would continue as a consultant for the next month, providing up to 10 hours of advice per week through April 16. In return, the company agreed to let some of his unvested stock option and stock “units”, which would have expired when he quit, continue vesting for an additional month.

To account for the extra vesting, the company will add $685,549 to its compensation expense for the quarter. Breaking that down by the 45 or so hours Beyer might conceivably be”consulting” during that time, his hourly rate comes out to more than $15,000 an hour.

Nice work if you can get it. But very, very few of you can.