TriMedia's new CEO searches for funding

TriMedia's new CEO searches for funding
By Junko Yoshida, EE Times
January 23, 2002 (3:42 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020122S0068

SAN MATEO, Calif. — TriMedia Technologies Inc., a developer of media processor intellectual property, appointed Sunil Sanghavi as its new chief executive officer last month and is reportedly seeking further funding on top of previous investments from Philips, Sony and National Semiconductor.

The two-year-old spin-off of Philips Semiconductors still needs several tens of millions of dollars before this summer. Sanghavi is said to be bringing some much-needed financial commitments to the company.

Sanghavi did not return phone calls by press time.

Cees Hartgring, TriMedia's previous CEO, resigned from the company last August. Sources close to the company said Hartgring left mainly because he was only able to raise $8 million of the $40-to-$50 million needed. Hartgring, who joined TriMedia from Philips Semiconductors, reportedly brought a 64-bit project with him, but TriMedia cancelled that project last spring.

TriMedia must still prove the viability of its plan to create and license embedded processor cores as an independent spin-off.

Philips Semiconductors has been more involved in development projects with TriMedia than was expected at the time of the spin-off, said Randy Smith, vice president of marketing and business development at TriMedia. "That's OK with us. It means free engineering resources," said Smith. "That's not to say that we are dependent on Philips," he added quickly. Although Philips, as a big consumer manufacturer, provides TriMedia with valuable input, other licensees such as Sony and 2Wire Inc. offer similarly valuable insight, he said.

To date, Philips Semiconductors is the only licensee that has shipped products based on IP licensed from TriMedia. Further, Philips Semiconductors is running multiple in-house projects based on the TriMedia core, including work on a standalone processor, on custom products, and on a chip that combines MIPS Technologies and TriMedia cores.

Founded to make it easier fo r OEMs — including Philips Electronics' competitors — to get TriMedia chips that were previously available only from Philips Semiconductors, TriMedia has announced three new licensees since it was spun-off 18 months ago. They are National Semiconductor, 2Wire and Nova Semiconductors.

The company has one other big-name licensee and investor aside from Philips, Sony and National, according to Smith. TriMedia should be able to publicly identify the company some time in the first half of this year, Smith said.

Sanghavi is said to have a track record as an executive in pre-IPO companies as well as in established companies such as Intel and Micron. In addition, he was instrumental in developing the business plan and obtaining seed funding for BlueSteel Networks, which was later acquired by Broadcom Corp. for more than $100 million.