Intel's Venture-Capital Investment Chief Exits -- WSJ

By Tomio Geron 

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (August 7, 2020).

Wendell Brooks, Intel Corp.'s head of venture investing and mergers and acquisitions, has resigned from the company.

The venture arm he led, Intel Capital, had been one of the more prolific corporate venture investors but in recent years it has tightened its focus.

Mr. Brooks, president of Intel Capital and a senior vice president at parent company Intel Corp., announced the move internally earlier this week, according to people familiar with the matter. Intel confirmed that Mr. Brooks was leaving.

"Wendell Brooks has resigned from Intel to pursue other opportunities. We thank Wendell for all his contributions and wish him the best for the future," an Intel spokesperson said in a statement. "Intel remains committed to strategic M&A, venture capital and our strong portfolio of Intel Capital-backed companies."

Intel Capital had been one of the larger corporate venture firms over the years but has tightened its focus in recent years to technologies related to its parent company. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested $12.9 billion in more than 1,582 companies globally, and 692 portfolio companies have gone public or participated in a merger, Intel said.

Anthony Lin, who has led mergers and acquisitions and international investing under Mr. Brooks, will lead Intel Capital temporarily while a search for a new president is conducted, the spokesman said. Mr. Lin, who joined Intel's mergers and acquisitions team in 2008, has previously worked at Banc of America Securities, ASAT, Merrill Lynch and PaineWebber.

Intel Capital, with about 300 portfolio companies, invested $225 million including 11 new investments and 26 follow-on deals in the first half of 2020, according to an email Intel Capital sent to its portfolio companies announcing the changes. Intel led more than 80% of its new deals in the first half of 2020, the email stated.

"We expect to end the year having invested more than $500 million. We also expect 2020 to be a very strong year of portfolio exits, notwithstanding macroeconomic conditions," the email stated.

Intel Capital, which invests in areas including artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, 5G telecom technology, data centers and cloud, also in July invested $250 million into Jio Platforms Ltd., the company running India's largest telecom provider by subscribers.

Substantial acquisitions done under Mr. Brooks included artificial intelligence chip maker Habana Labs, which was bought for about $2 billion, and autonomous car camera company Mobileye NV, which was bought for $15.3 billion.

Mr. Brooks, an engineer and former investment banker, took the top role at Intel Capital in 2015 and brought some changes to the group, including a compensation structure similar to traditional venture firms' compensation in which investors receive a percentage of the profits when a portfolio company is sold or goes public.

In 2018, Intel Capital laid off about a quarter of its staff, as the firm sought to do a smaller number of larger deals that were more strategically aligned with Intel Corp.'s core business. The firm sought to cut its then-60 investors since it wanted to focus on doing about 30 deals a year.

Then in January 2019, Intel Corp. named a new chief executive, Bob Swan.

Intel in July said its chief engineering officer was leaving the company and the company disclosed delays in its latest processor design.

Write to Tomio Geron at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 07, 2020 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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