Three months after closing its $14.8 billion acquisition of Linear Technology, Analog Devices has been quiet about internal changes. But on Thursday, the company shuffled its executive ranks to accommodate its new power business.
The Massachusetts-based supplier also added three new business units, which should fit its strategy to sell electronics for smarter cars and factory equipment. Analog Devices “has long been known as a living company founded on continuity and thoughtful evolution,” said Vincent Roche, its chief executive, in a statement.
Steve Pietkiewicz is the only holdover from Linear Technology to be promoted to Analog's executive ranks. Pietkiewicz, the former vice president for power management products, seems to have an almost identical role as Analog's senior vice president of power products. He held senior engineering and executive roles for 30 years at Linear Technology.
It was not immediately clear if changes further down the corporate ladder had occurred but not been announced. This year, Analog Devices' shareholders voted Robert Swanson, the founder, former chief executive, and former chairman of Linear Technology, to its board of directors.
Swanson founded Linear Technology in 1981 along with Robert Widlar and Robert Dobkin, its former vice president of engineering and chief technology officer. He helped build it into one of Silicon Valley’s most profitable chip makers and something of an apprentice program for analog engineers.
The latest changes suggest that Dobkin, 74, will have a reduced role at Analog Devices or none at all. After the announcement of Swanson’s board seat in January, a spokeswoman said that Analog Devices was “still determining the roles of Linear Technology’s executives upon completion of our acquisition."
Analog Devices is one of the largest makers of analog chips that convert the physical world into electronic signals, allowing industrial robots to sense temperature or networking equipment to process radio waves. With Linear Technology, it expanded into chips that, for instance, regulate power within automobiles and control signals in assembly lines.
The deal is Analog Devices’ biggest bet yet that these chips are a winning combination for the growing Internet of Things. It is still too early to know if the acquisition will succeed, but the company last month reported that it reaped $1.1 billion in second quarter revenue, up from $778 million in the same quarter last year. Linear Technology’s first contribution since the deal closed in March was $147.5 million.
Analog Devices predicted revenue between $1.34 billion and $1.42 billion for the third quarter this year, up from $870 million in the same span last year.
Other executive changes involved Greg Henderson, the senior vice president of a new business unit targeting the automotive, communications, aerospace, and defense markets. He had been vice president of microwave and RF products at Hittite, which Analog acquired for $2.45 billion in 2014.
Analog Devices also promoted Yusuf Jamal to senior vice president of another new and sprawling business unit for Internet of Things, security, industrial, healthcare, and consumer products. Jamal has worked at Analog Devices for 15 years. He has cycled through eight engineering and management jobs in portable and consumer electronics.