Chipmaker and cable supplier Broadcom Corp.'s CEO, Henry Nicholas III, announced his resignation during an earnings conference call last week, citing personal reasons.
"This has been a difficult personal decision for me, and one which has been driven entirely by personal issues related to my family separation and divorce," Nicholas said. He will serve out his term as co-chairman of the board, ending in May.
Chief operating officer Alan E. "Lanny" Ross will take over as interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent replacement.
For the quarter, Broadcom posted net revenue of $295.9 million, up 30.5 percent compared to revenue logged during the year-ago quarter.
A hefty $1.2 billion non-cash goodwill write-off ballooned the company's net loss to $1.75 billion, but excluding that change, the pro forma loss per share narrowed to $6.6 million, down from the $28.8 million loss in fourth-quarter 2001.
On the down side, Broadcom saw a drop in its cable and server product businesses to less than 25 percent of total revenues, as product backlogs increased in the fourth quarter. That was offset by strong growth in Broadcom's enterprise-networking product lines, particularly its switching and gigabit Ethernet products.
Heading into the first quarter, Broadcom expects modest improvement in its cable-related products.
