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Henry Samueli (born September 20, 1954 in Buffalo, New York) is co-founder and chief technology officer of the Broadcom Corporation and a philanthropist in the Orange County, California community. In 2007 Forbes placed Samueli's net worth at $2.3 billion. [1] He currently resides in Corona del Mar, California.
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Education
Samueli's parents, Sala and Aron, were Polish Jewish immigrants who survived Nazi Europe and arrived in the United States with almost nothing.[2] Samueli stocked shelves in his family's Los Angeles liquor store and graduated from Fairfax High School.[2]
Samueli attended UCLA, where he received his bachelor's degree (1975), master's degree (1976), and Ph.D (1980), all in the field of electrical engineering. His Ph.D. dissertation is entitled "Nonperiodic forced overflow oscillations in digital filters".
Broadcom Origins
In 1991, while still working as a professor at UCLA, Samueli co-founded his company, Broadcom Corporation, with one of his former students, Henry Nicholas. Each invested in $5,000 and worked out of Nicholas' Redondo Beach home, moving to Irvine four years later and took the firm public three years after that.[2] In 1998, when Broadcom became a publicly traded company, Samueli stopped working as a professor, but the UCLA Department of Electrical Engineering still maintains his name on the list of faculty.
Anaheim Ducks Ownership
In June 2005 he and his wife Susan bought the NHL's Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, now called the Anaheim Ducks, from the Walt Disney Company for $75 million. Samueli also owns the company that operates the city-owned Honda Center, the home of the Ducks. The Anaheim Ducks are now worth a reported value of $197 million.[3]
Under the ownership of Samueli and his wife Susan, the Anaheim Ducks won the 2007 Stanley Cup championship.
Philanthropy
The schools of engineering at UC Irvine and UCLA, where he is a professor, were renamed after Samueli after he donated $20 million and $30 million, respectively, to each in 1999. Samueli's donation founded the Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library at Chapman University, which was dedicated in 2005.[2]
Financial Investigation
Both the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the Department of Justice have been investigating Broadcom Corporation for backdating of stock options. Although an internal Broadcom investigation cleared Samueli, in mid-February 2007, Samueli hired his own attorney confirming that "the company and Samueli were responding to investigators separately" [4].
On May 15, 2008, Samueli resigned as chairman of the board and took of a leave of absence as Chief Technology Officer after being named in a civil complaint by the SEC.[5]
On June 23, 2008, Samueli pleaded guilty for lying to SEC for $2.2 billion of backdating. Under the plea bargain, Samueli agreed to serve a sentence of five years probation, a $250,000 criminal fine, and a $12 million payment to the US Treasury. His sentencing is scheduled for August 18.[6] [7] He was suspended indefinitely as the Anaheim Ducks' team owner by the National Hockey League.
During the technology boom in the 2000s, Samueli and Broadcom co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III awarded millions of stock options to attract and reward employees. Prosecutors alleged Samueli and Nicholas granted options to others, including some other top executives but not themselves, to avoid having to report $2.2 billion in compensation costs to shareholders.[2]
Prosecutors focused on a statement was made May 25, 2007, when Samueli denied under oath a role in making options grants to high-ranking executives. "I was not involved in the actual granting process," Samueli said. As part of his plea agreement, Samueli admitted the statement was false, because in January 2002 he twice helped to decide the date on which options should be granted. In his plea, he admitted being part of the options-granting process but stopped short of acknowledging that the options awards were flawed.[2]
See also
References
- ^ The Forbes 400 - #195 Henry Samueli
- ^ a b c d e f Reckard, E. Scott & Goffard, Christopher (June 24, 2008), "Broadcom co-founder Samueli pleads guilty in stock options fraud case", Los Angeles Times, <http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-samueli24-2008jun24,0,3244548.story>
- ^ NHL Team Valuations - #12 Anaheim Ducks
- ^ Samueli and Broadcom going different ways
- ^ Broadcom execs charged by SEC, take leave of absence
- ^ Broadcom exec pleads guilty to lying to SEC
- ^ Broadcom Co-Founder Enters Guilty Plea
External links
- Samueli's biography at the UCLA Department of Electrical Engineering
- The Samueli Foundation
- Henry and Susan Samueli honored
