Marvell Technology Group, Limited, is a producer of storage, processing, networking, security and connectivity solutions. The company was founded in 1995 and has over 3,700 employees. Marvell's U.S. operating headquarters is located in Santa Clara, California, and the company operates design centers in places including Europe, Israel, India, Singapore and China. Marvell is a "fabless" manufacturer of semiconductors (meaning that it is active entirely in core competencies of engineering and design, with the actual manufacturing outsourced to contract manufacturers in lower-cost emerging markets) that ships more than one billion integrated circuits (known as "chips") per year. Its market segments include data center, enterprise / campus, cloud, automotive, industrial and home / consumer.
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History
Marvell was founded in 1995 by Sehat Sutardja, his wife Weili Dai, and brother Pantas Sutardja. The initial public offering on June 27, 2000 (near the end of the dot-com bubble) raised $90 million, with the stock listed on NASDAQ with the symbol MRVL. After quickly raising from $19 to over $63 per share, three days later it was $55.25. At the time, the five largest customers, Samsung Electronics, Hitachi, Seagate Technology, Fujitsu and Toshiba, accounted for 97% of sales. The shares dropped sharply in December when insiders were allowed to sell.
In July 2018, Marvell completed its acquisition of Cavium, Inc., strengthening its storage, processing, networking, wireless connectivity and security product portfolios for the infrastructure market. On the same day, Marvell announced the appointment of Syed Ali (co-founder of Cavium, Inc., and previously the company's president and CEO), Brad Buss (director of Cavium, Inc.) and Dr. Edward Frank (director of Cavium, Inc.) to the Marvell Board of Directors.
In the summer of 2018, Marvell became the first silicon vendor in North America to open a CISPR 25 qualified automotive electromagnetic compatibility lab with the in-house capability to perform a wide range of emission, immunity and ESD tests to further drive the development of industry-leading automotive connectivity solutions.
The company is officially headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda. The US operations known as Marvell Semiconductor, Incorporated, are located in Silicon Valley, California.
Acquisitions
Through the years, Marvell acquired smaller companies to enter new markets.
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Products
Ethernet
Marvell's first products were sold for computer data storage devices. In March 2000, computer networking products for the Ethernet family were first shipped. In October 2002, the Yukon brand Gigabit Ethernet controller was announced.
XScale
On June 27, 2006, the sale of Intel's XScale assets was announced. Intel agreed to sell the XScale business to Marvell for an estimated USD 600 million in cash and the assumption of unspecified liabilities. The acquisition was completed on November 9, 2006.
SheevaPlug
In 2009, Marvell announced that the SheevaPlug, a small, low-power, SoC-based ARM architecture computer, would be released with full schematics.
iPhone
Marvell supplied the Wi-Fi chip for the original (first-generation) Apple iPhone.
MMH
Marvell Mobile Hotspot (MMH) is an in-car Wi-Fi connectivity. The 2010 Audi A8 was the first automobile in the market to feature a factory-installed MMH.
Chromecast
Google's Chromecast products are powered by Marvell SoCs. Namely the Marvell ARMADA 1500 Mini SoC (88DE3005) for the Chromecast 1st gen and Marvell ARMADA 1500 Mini Plus SoC (88DE3006) for the Chromecast 2nd gen & Chromecast audio. Synaptics acquired Marvell Multimedia Solutions on 2017-06-12 ARMADA 1500 SoC's are now produced under different names
In 2012, Marvell was named one of Thomson Reuters top 100 global innovators.
Legal cases
Stock options
In 2006, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) started an inquiry on the company's stock option grant practices. An investigation determined "grant dates were chosen with the benefit of hindsight" to make the options more valuable. The press estimated that the founders and other executives had made $760 million in gains from the options, which were awarded by the founding couple, Sehat Sutardja and Weili Dai. The SEC asked to interview the company general counsel Matthew Gloss, but Marvell claimed attorney-client privilege. Gloss was fired just before the investigation results were announced in May 2007.Abraham David Sofaer was hired to investigate the investigation after Gloss alleged it was not independent. In announcing the results of its own inquiry, the SEC did not give Marvell the credit granted other companies in the options scandal for cooperating with the SEC's investigation or for cleaning up. At the time of the announcement, the co-acting regional director of the SEC's San Francisco office stated, among other things, that the SEC did not believe that the lack of cooperation and remediation shown by Marvell merited a whole lot of credit in terms of giving Marvell a break. In announcing its results, the SEC found that Gloss was not a participant in Dai and Sutardja's backdating scheme. Marvell restated its financial results, and stated that Dai will no longer be executive vice president, chief operating officer, and a director but continue with the company in a non-management position. The company agreed to pay a $10 million fine in 2008, but did not fire Dai nor replace Sutardja as chairman as stated by the investigating committee.
Patent infringement
In December 2012, a Pittsburgh jury ruled that Marvell had infringed two patents (co-inventors Alek Kavcic and Jose Moura) by incorporating hard disk technology developed and owned by Carnegie Mellon University without a license. The technology, relating to improving hard disk data read accuracy at high speeds, was reported to have been used in 2.3 billion chips sold by Marvell between 2003 and 2012. The jury awarded damages of $1.17 billion, the third largest ever in a patent case at the time. The jury also found that the breach had been "willful", giving the judge discretion to award up to three times the original damage amount. In December 2012, the company lost its mistrial bid in this dispute. Post-trial hearings were scheduled for May 2013 and Marvell reported to be considering an appeal in the interim. In August, US District Judge Nora Barry Fischer upheld the award. On February 17, 2016, Marvell agreed to a settlement in which Marvell will pay Carnegie Mellon University $750,000,000.
See also
- Marvell Software Solutions Israel
References
External links
- Official website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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