Newport Beach chipmaker Conexant Systems Inc. on Monday announced a sudden change for its top post,the company’s second chief executive shake-up in a year.
Conexant longtime board member D. Scott Mercer has been tapped for the job. The company also promoted a slew of other executives.
Mercer, 57, replaces former chief executive Dan Artusi, who was hired last July to lead the company through a turnaround.
Shares of Conexant fell nearly 4% in afterhours trading on a recent market value of about $261 million.
It’s not clear why Artusi stepped down. The company said in a release it was to “pursue outside opportunities.”
His departure could have to do with the fact that his home and his family are in Austin, Texas.
Artusi had an office at Conexant’s engineering operations in Austin, but traveled to its Newport Beach headquarters frequently.
He’s kept a low profile and has declined several requests for an interview by the Business Journal.
Artusi did a lot of work to get Conexant out of red ink during the past three quarters, including cutting some 700 jobs in the U.S., India and China, and halting investments in chip businesses that weren’t profitable or growing.
Conexant’s stock is down some 65% in the past year.
A few months ago the company received a delisting warning from Nasdaq. Its shareholders approved a reverse stock split to keep it trading on the exchange.
The company finally broke even in the December quarter.
Mercer is set to stay on Conexant’s board, where he’s served for five years.
His first task as chief executive is to “evaluate our market and financial positions and to establish a clear strategic direction,” he said in a statement.
Mercer is a long time tech veteran. In 2005, He was named interim chief executive at Milpitas-based Adaptec Inc., where he remains chairman.
Before that, he spent eight years in a handful of positions at Lake Forest-based disk drive maker Western Digital Corp.
He also did stints at TeraLogic Inc., Dell Inc. and LSI Logic Corp.
Mercer serves on the boards of Palm Inc., Polycom Inc. and Smart Modular Technologies Inc.
He has a degree in accounting from the California Polytechnic University at Pomona.
Conexant also promoted two vice presidents up into new executive positions.
The company named Christian Scherp, 42, president,a new title for the company.
He was promoted from a post as vice president of worldwide sales.
Scherp will report to Mercer and be responsible Conexant’s three business units and sales people.
The company also named Sailesh Chittipeddi, 45, executive vice president of global operations and chief technical officer.
He was promoted from senior vice president of global operations.
Chittipeddi will report to Mercer and be responsible for operations, manufacturing, engineering and purchasing, among other tasks.
