We’re talking about the rocket now, right?

And Chee did run out to see it

Rob

Rob

No, he didn’t rush outside to watch that rocket launch!

A few years back, at a time when many of our friends would have (and many did or have since) sold their souls for any extra buck or two an hour – and landed in a job that would’ve required lots more time and piled on lots more responsibilities – my wife actually took a sizable pay cut to make a somewhat lateral move within the company. But she did so to get out of a bad situation and into a job that was more suited to her skills and would require almost no after-hours extra work. Primarily though, she made the move – and sacrificed real money – for the sake of job satisfaction. And I supported this choice 100% even though the loss of income was not exactly trivial.

Fast-forwarding to now, she’s turned that lower-paying job into a mid-level management position with an employee underneath her and a fair bit of say in what goes on in her department. Oh, she’s made up for that loss in pay. And she’s still in a job position that she loves.

Meanwhile, we’ve seen good people all but shoot themselves in the foot for a few extra bucks, only to become disgusted, bored, or even more greedy and move onto other jobs at other companies. Often, these folks will relocate to bigger metropolitan areas to accept “big deal” jobs with “big deal” pay only to discover that they eat up 3-4 extra hours of their day in dense commute and have a fraction of the free personal they used to. And these folks rarely comsider fully the differences in cost of living and such, so they end up jumping through hoops for little or no real net financial gain. A great buddy of mine who got married 2 weeks after me fell into this kind of trap and has lived in 10 different homes in as many years. He typically earns 2 to 4 times my annual salary yet hasn’t had a vacation in years. He’s in debt up to his eyelids. He spends maybe an hour a day with his wife & little boy due to excessive job responsibilities & extended commute-times. I earn less, have no real outstanding debt, and make it home before 6 p.m. consistently. We take frequent mini-vacations and have been on several international trips.

Money is fleeting. Don’t let it be the greatest driving force behind your career or life choices or you’re setting yourself up for repeated falls and likely a fair bit of unhappiness.

By the way, my aforementioned wife gets the lion’s share of the credit for having the financial savvy, ingenuity, and strength of character to make income a lesser priority for our family. My biggest credit is being lucky enough to snag a tiger by the tail and hold on tight…

And the Wikipedia suggestion is a good one as well!

I’m not knocking the damage that CNXT did to PRISM but my view was that the initial, most critical damage that set the tragectory was done before Intersil sold the unit by the bad decisions of certain executive management of the division.

How did you pay $11 for the stock? At the time of the merger, the stock was around $5 and a couple of months later it peaked to $8? Was this priced in from a Globespan purchase?

(p.s. I dumped all my CNXT stock)

(p.p.s. we should start updating the PRISM section of wikipedia)

But the post was fundamentally true, and I can’t undo truth.

And to all of you CNXT people reading this, Godspeed. I still own stock. I paid about $11.00 a share for it.

I want you to win as much as you want to win.

My view is that Intersil was fairly smart in moving the PRISM unit when they did. The market was turning into a commodity, we were late on 11g, we couldn’t make enough of the PRISM III, customers where bailing. Difficult to comeback from.

Also, at the time of the acquisition/merger of Conexant and Globespan, CNXT was already down around 5-7 dollars. I think Decker had a lot to do with that.

Also, Hooman is no longer with Conexant (and he came from the Globespan side of things). He is at a startup in the LA area (he called me recently).

In any event, it was a long, painfull fall.

Good luck in your new job!

Darnit!
I’m trying to teach the Lagesse kid some fundamentals of the English language here! (even though I don’t speak it natively myself).
Don’t make my job harder than it already is…

And how can you refer to ANYTHING coming from New England, language-wise, as an example of ‘okay’ use?
I have a friend who’s from Maine! Don’t get me started! And yes, she does indeed think of herself as WICKED good in English. The rest of us know better!

(And yes, I know, language is a ‘living’ thing: if enough people make the same mistake for a long enough time, that ‘mistake’ will eventually become proper grammar).

I’m also not sure I would characterize the verbal encounters with Michael as ‘conversations’. ‘Monologues’ is probably a better characterization.

(Just kidding of course, Michael IS a very smart man, but not (to me at least) in a frightening way, and you CAN have very interesting two-way conversations with him (but be prepared to defend your claims with well founded arguments!))

And I said Michael was “scary smart” – and he is!

As for me taking this “personally” – I haven’t shared all the gory details with you – but what really pissed me off was the way they lied right to my face. I wouldn’t do that to anyone. In fact, once when I knew there was going to be a RIF an employee came to me and asked if he was going to be affected (rumor mill was fully engaged). I told him that I wasn’t sure (true at the moment) but that I wouldn’t run out and buy a new truck if I was him. Two weeks later he bought a new truck. A week after that I let him go in a large RIF. He didn’t listen to me, but I didn’t lie to him. I am sorry – but as one of my other ex-employees described Chee and Hooman – “One is a liar and one is a bully. And they are interchangeable”.

That, I cannot forgive. The arrogance they displayed, I cannot forgive. The short-sightedness the entire Management Team had in thinking they could simply replace us all with low paid Indian Workers, I won’t forgive. This company destroyed millions and millions (billions?) of dollars worth of shareholder assets. Including mine.

The least important one: Globespan didn’t “buy” Conexant: the whole deal was officially structured as a merger. But when you looked under the hood, it was Conexant buying Globespan! Not the other way around. And one doesn’t even have to look under the hood to realize this, noting that the new company kept the name Conexant, not Globespan, that Conexant provided 7 board members and Globespan 5, and that the Globespan-originating CEO got kicked to the curb REAL fast after the merger was a fact. To that effect, it was more of a simple take-over than a merger or a sale.

Also not too important, but your TWO new bosses didn’t come from California. Only Chee (Conexant) did. Hooman was Globespan and came from Redbank.

But the thing that I really wanted to correct was the fact that you have those two bosses completely wreck the wireless division all by themselves (a notion I object to) and are now still with the company.
That is simply incorrect!
Both Chee and Hooman lost their jobs the same day everyone else did!
They may have had a different severance package, but they are outa there!
Hooman works for a small startup doing Ultra Wide band (WiLinx.com) and Chee is the new CEO at siimpel.com.

And btw, the last year newly appointed Conexant CEO Dan Artusi, who made the decision (or was MADE to make the decision) to close the wireless division, apparently has done what he was hired to do, and got kicked to the curb as well. The cold dismissal of people occurs at all levels! It’s just about the money. Always has been, always will be.

Oh, and Michael Fisher is NOT scary, but I mentioned that already

For what it’s worth, I think you did what you had to. Hope I’m never put in the same situation.