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Up in the clouds After developing an advanced computer chip, former MIT professor Suhas Patil needed an experienced business partner to help start a company to reap the benefits of his ingenuity. He found just the man in Mike Hackworth, a Northern California native, then senior vice president at Signetics. In 1984 the two men founded Cirrus Logic, a name suggested by Hackworth's daughter Lauren, after the highest clouds in the sky. In 1996 the company proved that it could live up to the name. Cirrus Logic soared to sales of more than $1.1 billion, up from $9 million just eight years before. This made Cirrus Logic the fastest Silicon Valley semiconductor firm ever to break into the billion-dollar-a-year club. Murky skies While a strong market for multimedia PC's and wireless communications provided a boost for the company, demand for its 2-D graphics took a hard dive. Just one year after reaching the $1 billion mark, sales dropped more than $200 million to $917 million. Cirrus Logic also gave pink slips to 15 percent of its workforce. Even with a broad portfolio of products and technologies, with applications in multimedia, communications, and mass storage, Cirrus underwent massive restructuring, including the sale of its wireless infrastructure equipment unit in 1996 for $23 million. During this period, Patil announced his removal from day-to-day operations and the new title of chairman emeritus. David French took over as president and CEO in June 1998. Twirling through the spin cycle Cirrus chose to spin off its networking chips and telecom sectors in November 1998, creating Basic Communications. Three months later in February 1999, the company created Ambient Technology to take care of its modem chip business. Last came the R&D spin off, Cradle Technologies Inc. Fiscal year 1999 ended unfavorably for Cirrus, due to a closing loss of nearly half a billion dollars. The restructuring of the company continued to take its toll on the budget, with costs beating Q1 revenues of fiscal 2000 by over $7 million. With the majority of its business allocated in storage and audio ICs, French believes Cirrus' future looks promising. In November 1999 he stated, "we're more focused and should be able to grow faster." Harmonizing over the Internet Cirrus jumped aboard the online express train of music in fall 1999, producing chips compatible to the popular MP3 and WMA formats. In February 2000, a security feature was added to Cirrus' line of Maverick chips, one of the industry's first set of chips built with the power to detect illegal tampering. I-Jam Multimedia selected this line of audio chips in May 2000 for its new Win-Jam Digital Audio Player. On the move Cirrus moved its company headquarters from Frement, CA to Austin, TX in April 2000. The Austin office, in operation since 1991, holds nearly 70 percent of the company's employees and has been the site for a large majority of its corporate functions.
Applicants should consult the updated list of job openings on the Cirrus Logic web page, located at http://www.cirrus.com/Employment/index.cfm. This service allows applicants to run searches for specific jobs at any or all of the company's locations in the United States, and provides information about submitting resumes. Cirrus Logic looks for motivated individuals with strong backgrounds in technical fields, namely electrical engineering, computer science, finance, and accounting. Cirrus recruits graduating college students on campuses around the country as well. Insiders tell Vault.com that Cirrus is so eager for new employees that it runs a promotional program with free trips and other prizes given to those employees who make referrals.
Employees find that "overall Cirrus is a nice place to work" with "competitive" pay and "flexible" hours." "I see a lot of respect and professionalism," says one insider. "Cirrus does not have as many levels of management hierarchy as some bigger companies," employees report. Insiders say that, like many high tech Silicon Valley companies, Cirrus has "had some great times and some not so great times." Explains one employee: "The last two years have been a recuperation period for the company. We've had two downsizings and a fairly major reorganization, with the company focus turning away from the highly competitive graphics market, and turning to the sub-$1000 PC and system-on-a-chip markets. This refocusing has been very good for Cirrus Logic and this year [1998] employees will receive two bonuses." Benefits and employee stock purchasing plans are "very competitive in the market," and are considered by insiders to be "the biggest perks" of the job. Another perk: "company subsidization of a very nice health club." Compensation is based on your experience "and how well you can negotiate with HR!" Cirrus also has private touchscreen kiosks, and Web access available in breakrooms for the benefit of its employees without PC access. As is the case almost across the board in Silicon Valley, the dress code is "fairly casual, usually comfortable jeans." Employees say that "most people have cubicles; only managers have offices." "I'm not sure how they evaluate who deserves windows," shrugs one insider. However, not all is "a sea of cubes," for "the cafeteria is very good. Kitchenettes and eating areas are provided in every building as well as outside. There are on-site basketball courts." As far as employment policies go, Cirrus has "a large number of women" and a "big percentage of minorities." However, one female employee comments that while "well over half of senior management is of Asian descent, women, on the other hand, are less well represented. It makes me wonder about the glass ceiling." Still, that insider notes that "many women engineers, however, have been rightfully promoted." The work week is "not too progressive. Flex-time and telecommuting are allowed with a manager-employee agreement, but there is no company policy."
Human Resources
Analog Devices;Linear Technology;Lucent Technologies;National Semiconductor Corp.; STMicroelectronics;Texas Instruments More Company Profiles For more career information, go to Vault.com ©2000, Vault.com Inc
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