Marvell Technology Group’s chief executive and president are stepping down, two months after activist investor Starboard Value disclosed a stake in the chipmaker and said its shares were undervalued.
The company’s shares jumped 11 percent to $10.68 in early trading on Tuesday.
Chief Executive Sehat Sutardja co-founded the chipmaker in 1995, along with his wife Weili Dai, the president, and brother Pantas.
Starboard, run by Jeffrey Smith, wants Marvell to cut costs and exit its mobile wireless business, a person familiar with the matter had told Reuters in February.
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Marvell said last month an investigation pointed out that there was “significant pressure” from the management on sales teams to meet revenue targets but found no fraud in the way it booked its revenue in some quarters.
The audit committee conducting the probe also raised questions about a patent Sutardja had initially claimed as his before passing onto the company.
The patent relates to a technology that substantially reduces the amount of a type of memory needed to run computers and smartphones.
The company said on Tuesday it had formed an interim office of the chief executive for day-to-day operations.
The office will be headed by Maya Strelar-Migotti, executive vice president, smart networked devices and solutions business and Pantelis Alexopoulos, executive vice president of the storage business, as interim co-chief executive officers.
