Update: Ex-Broadcom VP named CEO of Telegent

SAN FRANCISCO—Ford Tamer, a 20-year semiconductor industry veteran who previously co-founded Agere Systems Inc. and held a high-ranking executive position at Broadcom Corp., has joined mobile TV chip vendor Telegent Systems Inc. as CEO, the company said Thursday (June 17).

Ford Tamer Telegent Systems

Tamer succeeds Telegent co-founder Samuel Sheng who, as announced last month, will resume his position of chief technology officer to focus on developing and expanding Telegent’s core technology platforms.

In an interview with EE Times Thursday, Tamer said that after spending some time looking at various management opportunities he is convinced that Telegent is the right platform from which to build a multi-billion dollar company. "Those are very rare to find and very difficult to find," he said.

Asked how long it might take Telegent to become a billion dollar company, Tamer estimated four to five years. He said in his previous experience he helped grow Broadcom's Infrastructure Networking Group from roughly $200 million to $1.2 billion in five years on the strength of acquisitions—some made before his arrival at Broadcom—and organic growth.

Most recently, Tamer was partner at venture capital firm Khosla Ventures. He previously served as senior vice president and general manager of Broadcom's Infrastructure Networking Group and was CEO at Agere, which was acquired by Lucent Technologies in 2000, later spun back out and eventually acquired by LSI Corp. in 2007.

Tamer, who has an M.S. and Ph.D. in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earlier co-founded MegaKnowledge, a company that was acquired by Hewlett-Packard Co., according to Telegent (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

Telegent, which last month withdrew a planned initial public offering, had revenue of about $124 million in fiscal 2009, according to a regulatory filing made when the company announced its intention to go public in November 2009.

Tamer said he would spend the first three months of his tenure at Telegent developing a strategic plan for reach the company's revenue goals.