Husband-and-Wife Team Leading Marvell Technology Resigns

The husband-and-wife team running Marvell Technology Group Ltd. resigned Tuesday, a month after an audit-committee investigation identified "tone at the top" issues that led to a number of accounting problems.

Shares jumped 14% to $11 in premarket trading.

Chief Executive Sehat Sutardja and President Weili Dai, who are married, resigned from their managerial positions at the semiconductor company they founded. The two will remain on the board with Mr. Sutardja remaining Chairman.

"The board believes that the time has come to move in a new leadership direction," said Marvell's lead outside director, Arturo Krueger.

The chip maker, which is under federal investigation over its accounting practices and other issues, said in March that an internal investigation had found a series of accounting problems largely tied to when revenue was recognized. The company said it hadn't found evidence of fraud. Rather, it cited what it called "tone at the top" issues, including management pressure to meet revenue targets.

The company's external accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, resigned in October. Marvell has since hired Deloitte & Touche LLP.

Marvell's previously announced search for a permanent chief financial officer and other independent board members continue. Two executive vice presidents, Maya Strelar-Migotti and Pantelis Alexopoulos, will lead an interim office of a chief executive until new leadership is found.

Last week, the company said it would miss a deadline for a financial reporting deadline. On Tuesday Marvell said it was working to finish its annual report and two quarterly reports "as soon as practicable."

Write to Austen Hufford at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 05, 2016 09:45 ET (13:45 GMT)

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