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Symwave Appoints Yossi Cohen, a Senior Broadcom Veteran, as President and CEOSAN DIEGO --(Business Wire)-- Symwave, Inc., a privately-held supplier of high-performance analog/mixed signal semiconductor solutions for the PC, consumer and mobile devices, today announced the appointment of Yossi Cohen as President and Chief Executive Officer. As Symwave CEO, Yossi will lead the company in evolving its initial product offerings into a broad-based product portfolio, expanded customer base, and accelerated revenue growth. With this appointment, Symwave will transform into an attractive platform for high quality investments, further leverage its large China-based mixed signal design center, and grow both organically and via strategic mergers and acquisitions. "Yossi brings with him an extremely successful track record of formulating and executing product and business strategies that grow into large-scale market leadership successes," said David French, Chairman of Symwave. "Yossi will be very instrumental as we execute on Symwave's next phase of growth." Mr. Cohen comes to Symwave after more than 10 years of successful management roles at Broadcom, and most recently managed over 1,000 engineers as Senior Vice President and Group General Manager of the Mobile Platforms Group. Before the Mobile Platforms Group, he was Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Bluetooth Business Unit, responsible for its massive growth into the PC, cell phones, gaming and peripheral segments. Prior to growing the Bluetooth unit, he initiated the company's Gigabit controller business and helped drive it to be the market leader within its category. Earlier on, Mr. Cohen helped drive a number of other successful businesses at Broadcom, including Fast and Gigabit Ethernet transceivers and switches. Mr. Cohen also gained valuable M&A experience while at Broadcom, driving or participating in eight strategic acquisitions totaling several billion dollars. Prior to joining Broadcom, Mr. Cohen held various management positions at National Semiconductor. Mr. Cohen holds a BSEE degree from The Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. "Joining Symwave is an exceptional opportunity," said Yossi Cohen "Symwave has a strong product pipeline, solid IP position and extraordinary analog engineers. Further, the company has a strong and proven China team in place and is uniquely positioned to benefit from the country's explosive economic and technology growth in the coming years." Symwave's high-performance analog mixed signal IC products are revolutionizing computing and consumer electronic (CE) industries by providing ultra-low power and high performance solutions. As the first semiconductor company to implement novel CDR and PLL techniques into standard interface consumer products, the company is able to deliver unprecedented speed and power levels in targeted applications within rapidly growing industries such as consumer electronics and mobile devices. "Yossi Cohen has an excellent reputation for making a significant impact on a company," said Dave Furneaux, Founder and Managing General Partner of Kodiak Venture Partners. "Symwave is poised for explosive growth under the leadership of this seasoned executive who has a strong history of success. We look forward to working with Yossi and supporting him in driving the company into its next phase of growth." "Yossi is the ideal choice for Symwave at what is a very exciting time for the company," said Faysal Sohail, Managing Director at CMEA Ventures. "Yossi has the management skills and proven execution track record needed to help Symwave reach its goals, and we are confident that with his leadership we can grow it into a highly successful company." Over the coming weeks, Symwave will open a new headquarters in Orange County, California to augment its existing San Diego office. About Symwave Symwave is a fabless semiconductor company that designs, develops and markets high-performance analog/mixed-signal integrated circuits and system solutions. Symwave specializes in the design and development of high-speed, standards-based Serial Physical Layer ICs (PHYs) and high-performance, low-power Analog Frond End ICs (AFEs) leveraging its proprietary mixed-signal technology and silicon design capabilities. Symwave's mission is to become the premier supplier of high-performance, customer-driven mixed-signal silicon and systems solutions to the PC, mobile device and consumer electronics markets. Symwave's strategy is focused on defining, developing and delivering best-in-class / first-in-class integrated circuit solutions for its customers leveraging Symwave's world-class analog / mixed-signal IC design team coupled with its broad IP portfolio. Symwave is a privately held company founded in 2001 with headquarters in San Diego, CA, and offices in Southern China, and is backed by several top-tier venture capital firms. Additional information is available at www.symwave.com. About Kodiak Venture Partners Kodiak Venture Partners is a Waltham, Mass.-based early stage venture firm focused on formation investing in sectors such as emerging communications/wireless, semiconductor/equipment, software/services, Internet/new media and life technologies. Kodiak is made up of world-class entrepreneurs with successful backgrounds and broad functional expertise. As a result of their hands-on approach, they have a proven track record in building companies with disruptive technologies and first class management teams into true market leaders. For more information, visit www.kodiakvp.com About CMEA Ventures CMEA Ventures (www.cmeaventures.com) is a venture capital firm focused on life sciences, high technology, and energy and materials investments. CMEA believes that the most successful venture backed companies are science focused, with experienced teams intent on winning. As a result, CMEA's portfolio companies typically have cutting edge, highly differentiated, and often multidisciplinary technology at their core, with founding teams of the highest caliber. CMEA invests in both early and late stage ventures, and has a strong network of corporate, investment, and entrepreneurial relationships that it leverages on behalf of its portfolio companies. The firm currently manages six funds representing investments in excess of $1 billion. CMEA has been an early stage investor in many successful companies, including Arcadia, Bayhill Therapeutics, Codexis, Entropic, Flextronics (FLEX), Ilypsa (sold to Amgen), Intermolecular, LiveOps, Perlegen, Silicon Spice (BRCM), Superprotonic, Symyx (SMMX), Syrrx (purchased by Takeda), and Xenoport (XNPT). CMEA Ventures was founded in 1989 and maintains offices in San Francisco and Menlo Park. CMEA's partners and associates have extensive science, engineering, and operational backgrounds that particularly suit CMEA's focus on technology and teams - an effective differentiator for entrepreneurs and venture investment partners who dare to change the world, one great company at a time. |
