Mark Peterson wasn’t sure he’d last a month when he joined Conexant Systems Inc. in 2008.
The Newport Beach-based chipmaker was going through an executive shakeup just as Peterson was getting settled.
He was hired one month before former chief executive Dan Artusi abruptly left in 2007, after less than a year on the job. Artusi was replaced by longtime director and current Chief Executive Scott Mercer.
Peterson, who is senior vice president, chief legal officer and secretary at Conexant, wondered if he would be next.
“During my first interview with Scott, I was concerned that he would want to bring in his own person,” he said.
Mercer not only kept Peterson, he made him the go-to guy in a massive overhaul at Conexant, a maker of chips for printers, TV set-top boxes, digital picture frames and other devices.
Conexant sees yearly sales of about $230 million. The company’s shares have pulled back in recent weeks but still are up nearly 100% in the past 12 months with a recent market value of some $190 million.
Peterson was honored with the Small Public Company award earlier this month at the Business Journal’s inaugural General Counsel Awards at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.
He has helped Mercer cut jobs, sell off products and make acquisitions. Peterson also has handled a number of patent sales and two stock offerings in which Conexant sold about $120 million worth of shares.
Conexant’s legal group wasn’t spared from thousands of job cuts across the company in 2008 and 2009, Peterson said. The company has about 300 workers in OC and 600 in all.
“As we were shrinking the company, we also had to shrink the legal department,” he said.
Peterson is in charge of four lawyers, six paralegals and a few assistants. Conexant also works with outside law firms.
The pared down legal team had its hands full this past year.
“We had a significant senior debt deal, two tender offers and an equity offering all at the same time,” he said. “We had three teams of lawyers on the underwriter’s side and our side. We were able to get it all done.”
It also shepherded the sale of two product lines.
In 2009, Conexant sold its digital subscriber line and broadband chip products to Fremont-based Ikanos Communications Inc. for $54 million.
In 2008, it sold its business making chips for set-top TV boxes for up to $145 million to NXP Semiconductors, the former chip arm of Royal Philips Electronics NV.
The deals weren’t as clear cut as they seemed.
“Those were two of the larger transactions,” Peterson said. “There were some unique challenges there because we weren’t just selling a subsidiary. We were trying to carve out a piece of the ongoing business.”
SoCal Boy
Peterson, 48, was born in Huntington Beach and still lives there.
He’s a self-described “typical SoCal boy” who likes surfing and volleyball.
After getting his law degree at the University of California, Berkeley, Peterson worked for six years at O’Melveny and Myers LLP in Newport Beach.
He worked on the initial public offering of Irvine-based telescope maker Meade Instruments Corp., which later hired him as its corporate lawyer.
For a time, he ran Meade’s European division, which eventually was sold.
After Meade, Peterson spent time at Anaheim’s Targus Inc., a maker of computer bags, backpacks and related accessories, before coming to Conexant.
“I’ve very pleased with what we have been able to accomplish the past two years,” he said. “It’s nice to see us get to this point where we can focus on growth.”
