Broadcom closes DTV division?

Reports are coming into KitGuru that serious redundancies have happened over at Broadcom. What exactly has happened to the unit the company acquired from AMD in 2008 and how did the staff find out?

According to its own blurb, Broadcom provides the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment/broadband access products and mobile devices. So, basically, a lot of chips, to a lot of people, with a heavy emphasis on connecting everything.

Right now, Broadcom appears to be connecting employees with unemployment benefit cheques.

The division creating products for the Digital TV market arrived in 2008, from AMD, as the Sunnyvale crew decided to ‘lose weight and put some cash in the bank' – according to former head honcho, Dirk Meyer.

At the time, the acquisition was heralded by Daniel Marotta, Senior Vice President & General Manager, as becoming “the core of Broadcom's DTV business”. Lofty stuff.

He also said that it would enable his company to, “…significantly scale and accelerate the completion of our digital TV product portfolio while also expanding our tier one customer base and positions us to achieve leadership and long-term growth in this important market segment”.

The way you do.

The combined DTV team was supposed to put Broadcom into an excellent position to “grow and thrive in a burgeoning market by bringing best in class people, technology, solutions and support” to its customers.

Looks like that desire expired with the locked doors that confronted surprised employees of the DTV team this morning.

While closures in Yardley, Pennsylvania, might not come as much of a shock in these troubled times for the US economy, KitGuru would have thought that advanced technology positions in Broadcom's offices on West Nanjing Road in Shanghei would have been safer.

KitGuru says: At the time of posting, we have not seen an official statement on the move, but we've heard from sources close to unemployed Broadcom personnel. Whatever happens, we wish them luck. It would be good to know if Broadcom considers the whole venture $192.8 million wasted. KitGuru has asked Broadcom for an official response to these stories and we'll let you know if/when it comes through.

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