Skyworks Solutions Inc.’s new chief executive, Liam Griffin, will run the chipmaker from Irvine, swinging the pendulum of corporate influence from Woburn, Mass., in the Boston metro area to Orange County.
“It’s been a tremendous location for me and my ability to work for the company,” said Griffin, referencing the proximity to Silicon Valley and easier travel to key Asia-Pacific markets and manufacturing hubs in China compared to the East Coast.
Griffin replaced David Aldrich, 59, who had held the top post since 2000, operating from the company’s headquarters in suburban Boston.
Aldrich was named executive chairman of the board and will remain in Massachusetts. Griffin will join the board.
The 49-year-old executive joined Skyworks in 2001 as head of sales and marketing. His leadership roles expanded throughout the years into research and development and operations. He moved up to executive vice president in 2011 when he relocated to the Irvine office.
Griffin was groomed as Aldrich’s successor and took the president title in May 2014 while serving as a key architect in the company’s strategy to build a leadership position in mobile communications and in its ongoing diversification efforts into the Internet of Things segment, Skyworks’ largest growth market today.
The Apple Inc. supplier posted sales of more than $3.2 billion in the 12 months through September, the end of its fiscal year, up about 42% from a year earlier. Its profit was $798.3 million, up 74.4%.
It was Orange County’s third largest chipmaker through October behind Broadcom Ltd. in Irvine and TowerJazz in Newport Beach, with 307 local employees.
The company employs more than 6,000 and has offices in Santa Clara, San Diego and Newbury Park, Calif.; Mexicali in Baja California; and in Asia and Europe.
The company’s Irvine office is home to its design center for custom and standard analog and mixed signal semiconductors.
Designs on Growth
The local office not only has grown employment since Griffin relocated here, but has increasingly added corporate personnel, including department heads in sales, marketing, operations, business development, mergers and acquisitions, and quality assurance.
The region is among Skyworks’ best in terms of access to a deep pool of diverse engineering talent, serving as a big pipeline for business, and boosting company culture, according to the new chief executive.
“We’re really happy with what we’re seeing at this location,” said Griffin, who grew up in Brookline, Mass., in the shadows of Fenway Park and his beloved Boston Red Sox.
Skyworks’ communication chips are used in smartphones, tablets, routers, PCs and notebook computers, among other devices, including the Nest thermostat by Google Inc. and smart locks by Lake Forest-based Kwikset, the top-selling U.S. residential lock maker.
Skyworks has more than 2,000 customers and produces about 2,500 analog components.
Apple’s main contractor, Foxconn Technology Group, was the only company to account for more than 10% of Skyworks’ revenue in its last fiscal year, according to its annual report. Foxconn and Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest consumer electronics manufacturer, held that distinction the prior two fiscal years.
The chipmaker has earmarked several emerging segments for investment and research, including connected and autonomous vehicles, TVs and streaming media.
“I think the opportunity is just tremendous,” Griffin said.
Its close ties to Apple and Samsung have led to significant jumps in the top and bottom lines on its balance sheet in the past few years.
Skyworks is a rare acquirer in an era of industry consolidation, but did go all in last year for PMC-Sierra Inc. It ultimately lost a bidding war to Aliso Viejo-based Microsemi Corp., which acquired the Sunnyvale chipmaker for $2.5 billion.
“We’re building a strategy on our organic growth and looking at M&A,” Griffin said, “but we don’t chase deals.”
Early Days
Orange County has played a key role in Skyworks’ evolution since it was established in 2002 after Alpha Industries Inc. in Woburn merged with the wireless communications business of Newport Beach-based chipmaker Conexant Systems in Irvine, and subsequently acquired the manufacturing and testing plant in Mexicali for $150 million.
The combined company was renamed Skyworks Solutions, with its shares trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol SWKS.
The wireless unit was one of four business spinouts that included Mindspeed Technologies Inc. in Newport Beach as Conexant began to unravel after the tech bubble burst, steadily losing ground to competitors, such as Broadcom.
Conexant’s shares reached an all-time high of $132.50 in 2000, for a market value of more than $24.3 billion. Annual sales hit a record $2.1 billion that year as Conexant grew to become OC’s largest chipmaker and one of the biggest in the U.S.
Shares plummeted to $9.06 by the end of 2002, and revenue fell by nearly 75%, prompting the company to divest assets.
San Francisco-based Golden Gate Private Equity Inc. took Conexant private in 2011 in a $282 million buyout. The chipmaker filed for Chapter 11 two years later and emerged from bankruptcy protection in June 2013, when hedge fund billionaire George Soros’ QP SFM Capital Holdings Ltd. took ownership.
Conexant itself was spun off in 1999 from what was Rockwell International, which was headquartered in Costa Mesa.
