APPOINTMENTS
ParthusCeva appoints new CEO
06-06-2003
by Andrew McLindon
ParthusCeva has appointed a semiconductor industry veteran to head-up the firm as it seeks to maintain its recent turnaround.
The US-based company, which was formed by the merger last year of Irish firm Parthus and DSP Group spin-off Ceva, said on Friday that Chet Silvestri will become its new chief executive officer with immediate effect.
According to ParthusCeva, Silvestri has over 25 years experience in the semiconductor industry. He started his career as a design engineer before taking on marketing and sales, R&D, and executive management positions in companies such as Sun Microsystems, Tripath Technology and Intel. Most recently, he was chief executive of Arcot Systems, which developed the Verified by Visa credit card authentication software product.
The chip design company has been on the hunt for a chief executive following the resignation of its CEO Kevin Fielding in early April. Fielding said at the time that he left the position because he did not want to uproot his family to the US where the business' headquarters is located. Brian Long, the co-founder of Parthus, had held the position of interim chief executive since then.
The appointment of Silvestri and the fact that he will be based at the company's San Jose HQ has finally ended any notion of ParthusCeva being an Irish company. Although more than half of the firm's 240 employees remain in Ireland, nearly all of its high-level executives are US-based, as are the majority of its shareholders and customers. Indeed, ParthusCeva's press release on Silvestri's appointment stresses that he will be stationed in San Jose.
Brian Long, vice-chairman of ParthusCeva, welcomed Silvestri's appointment saying that he has a track record of driving business growth and shareholder value. "The board believes that the appointment of ChetÂ…will help drive a new stage of growth for ParthusCeva," said Long in a statement.
Silvestri is certainly joining ParthusCeva at an interesting time for the firm. The slump in the semiconductor industry, combined with problems in merging the two businesses, had seen it struggle early on, but there are now signs that it is turning a corner.
At the end of April, it reported a 50 percent rise in revenues for its first quarter to USD8.8 million. This was due to stronger licensing and royalty revenues, which almost doubled to nearly USD7 million. This revenue performance, along with tighter cost controls, helped it reach pro forma profitability, maintained the firm.
This improvement has also been reflected in the company's share price, which has gone from USD3.04 in mid-February 2003 to USD6.51 at the close of trading on Nasdaq on Thursday. Not even the resignation of Fielding, along with the company's CTO, caused more than a minor blip in this rise. The firm's stock continued upwards in early trading on Friday on Nasdaq up 2.15 percent to USD6.65.
On his appointment, Silvestri said he believed that the company is well positioned to take advantage of a market that was poised for strong and sustained growth.
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