Marvell Technology Group


Marvell Technology Group is a Bermudan-domiciled semiconductor company. Founded in 1995, the company now has more than 6,000 employees and 10,000 patents worldwide and annual revenue of $2.9 billion. Its U.S. headquarters is located in Santa Clara, CA.

History

Marvell was founded in 1995 by Dr. Sehat Sutardja, his wife Weili Dai, and brother Pantas Sutardja. The initial public offering on June 27, 2000 raised $90 million.
In April 2016, CEO Sehat Sutardja and President Weili Dai were ousted from their posts after activist investor Starboard Value fund took a roughly 7 percent stake in the company.
In July 2016, Marvell appointed Matt Murphy as its new President and Chief Executive Officer. He worked previously for 22 years at Maxim Integrated, most recently as EVP, Business Units, Sales & Marketing. He currently also serves on the board of directors of eBay, the Semiconductor Industry Association, and the Global Semiconductor Alliance.
On July 6, 2018, Marvell completed its acquisition of Cavium, Inc. On the same day, it announced the appointment of Syed Ali, Brad Buss and Edward Frank to the Marvell Board of Directors.
In September 2019, Marvell completed the acquisition of Aquantia, Corp. As part of the acquisition, Faraj Aalaei, formerly Aquantia's Chairman and CEO, joined Marvell as a senior executive.

Acquisitions

Through the years, Marvell acquired smaller companies to enter new markets.
DateAcquired companyExpertiseCost
October 2000Galileo TechnologyEthernet switches, system controllers$2700M in stock
June 2002SysKonnectPC networking
February 2003RadlanEmbedded networking software$49.7M
August 2005Hard disk controller division of QlogicHard disk & tape drive controllers$180M in cash + $45M in stock
December 2005SOC division of UTStarcomWireless communications $24M in cash
February 2006Printer ASIC business of AvagoPrinter ASICs$240M in cash
July 2006XScale product line from IntelCommunications processors and SOCs$600M in cash
January 2008PicoMobile NetworksCommunication software for IWLAN and IMS
August 2010Diseño de Sistemas en Silicio S.A. Spanish company, PLC communication ICs
January 2012XeleratedNetwork Processors
July 6, 2018CaviumARM Processors$6B in cash & stock
May 2019Intent to acquire Avera SemiASICs$650 million in cash
Sept 2019AquantiaASICs Mutli-Gig Ethernet$450 million in cash


Products

Infrastructure Processors

On November 12, 2019, Marvell announced that their ThunderX2 SoCs have been deployed on Microsoft Azure. On March 2, 2020, Marvell announced OCTEON Fusion and OCTEON TX2 5G infrastructure processors, as well as deals to provide processors for 5G Infrastructure for Huawei, Nokia, Ericsson, ZTE, and Samsung. On March 16, 2020, Marvell announced ThunderX3 and their plan for ThunderX4 in 2022.

iPhone

Marvell supplied the Wi-Fi chip for the original Apple iPhone.

MMH

Marvell Mobile Hotspot 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 for the Chromecast 1st gen and Marvell ARMADA 1500 Mini Plus SoC 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

Legal cases

Stock options

In 2006, the US Securities and Exchange Commission 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 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.