Broadcom’s CEO has fortune and business success, but autism touched his family
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Broadcom CEO Hock Tan used an MIT scholarship and academic success in the United States to rise from modest Malaysian roots to build a global computer-chip empire, now including a potential takeover of San Diego’s Qualcomm.
- His reputation is as a cost-cutting tough guy, who rewards performance and isn’t interested in being employer of the year.
- Two of his three children have autism, sparking $30 million in donations from the family to autism research.
Broadcom CEO Hock Tan: Here’s the full story
Who is Hock Tan, the hard-charging Broadcom CEO muscling his way toward a potential takeover of San Diego’s Qualcomm?
He won an MIT scholarship as a “skinny kid” in Malaysia, leveraging academic success to scale the tech world. Some of that wealth has gone to study autism, which affects two of his three children.
Tan, 66, has been cast as a corporate raider of sorts in his ongoing Qualcomm bid, after a string of acquisitions in the past five years that allowed him to cobble together a computer-chip empire.
His track record shows Tan aggressively sloughing off divisions of these newly acquired companies when they don’t fit in with the narrow pursuit of chip dominance.
Analysts say what’s driving him is by-the-numbers success, which shareholders love. His management style runs to rewarding those who perform – without any interest in being employer of the year.
He’s about performance, not perks
“Steamlining is his M.O,” said Ryan Shrout of Shrout Research.
“He’s been quoted many times saying he doesn’t understand how any company can spend 10 percent on (administrative functions.) He strives to hit 1 percent per function, such as human resources or legal,” Shrout said.
That leads to a very lean company, where people who don’t hit their numbers are pushed out. Hence, Tan’s tough-guy reputation.
“He’s not interested in creating a Google, Facebook-like atmosphere, where people are free to explore new ideas. Or have table tennis in the break room,” Shrout said.
Tan’s aggressive history even became a point of gallows humor around Silicon Valley, the U.S. headquarters of his corporate umbrella firm.
“Big and small companies are here tonight, but beware: None of you are safe from Hock Tan,” joked comedian Wayne Brady, performing at an industry dinner in December, according to the New York Times.
“He’s on a financial rampage to own ... well, everyone, apparently.”
Layoffs are common in tech mergers, and Tan has certainly embraced that model.
Layoffs + departure of talent predicted
His Singapore-based Avago cut 1,900 jobs globally when it bought Irvine-based Broadcom in 2016 and took its name. Then, when Broadcom bought San Jose-based Brocade Communications late last year, about 300 people lost their jobs at the acquired company.
Given Tan’s record and style, analysts predict layoffs in San Diego if the deal goes through.
On top of that, some top managers and engineering talent will likely head for the exits at Qualcomm, a company that bills itself as the innovator that put the “smart” in your smartphone.
Tan has called himself “kind of a frugal guy” in one recent published interview.
He appears to come from humble beginnings.
Born in Penang, Malaysia, Tan earned a scholarship in 1971 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his undergraduate work.
Top degrees led to the executive suite
He has described himself as “just an 18-year-old skinny kid, growing up in Malaysia” with parents who could not afford to send him to college.
Tan earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT in the same year.
With an MBA from Harvard a few years later, Tan started to climb the corporate ladder — first at consumer-products companies before switching to tech.
He married Wall Street investment banker Lisa Yang, and they have three children.
Later in life, a chunk of the Tan fortune would go to universities to study autism.
The couple’s son Douglas and daughter, Eva, are both touched by the condition, a developmental disorder that can involve varying degrees of language and social impairments and repetitive behaviors.
$30 million to help autism
Last year, the family pledged $20 million to spur multidisciplinary autism research at MIT, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The research focuses on finding out what causes the condition and on discovering effective treatments.
Two years earlier, they gave $10 million to Cornell University, Yang’s alma mater, to fund the K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Employment and Disability Institute.
It focuses on helping people with disabilities find work.
Lisa Yang has said that medical care for her autistic children drew the family to the Philadelphia area from Singapore, where they lived when the children were young.
It was a pediatric neurologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who diagnosed Douglas. He has a more severe version of the condition and, now in his early 30s, has lived in a group home.
The couple’s daughter has a milder version and was able to go to college, with her mother’s help at first. Yang attended classes with her daughter to boost her confidence and help her process lectures.
Another son reportedly works as an investment banker in California.
Tan also gave $4 million to MIT in 2015 to endow a mechanical engineering professorship honoring one of his former professors.
Tan and his wife, or via a family trust, own houses in Bryn Mawr and Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, both suburbs of Philadelphia, and on the New Jersey shore near Atlantic City, according to property records.
In California, they own homes in the Bay Area on the peninsula, in San Francisco and San Mateo.
At Broadcom, Tan’s total compensation was $24 million in 2016, according to public filings.
Tax breaks = corporate return to U.S.
In November, Tan stood with President Donald Trump to announce the decision to move Broadcom’s corporate headquarters back to the United States, as a nod to recent corporate tax cuts.
Tan said he wanted to help “achieve the American dream” for everyone.
“I am American, as are nearly all my direct managers, my board members and over 90 percent of my shareholders,” Tan said in a press conference. “So today we are announcing that we are making America home again.”
The move will bring $20 billion in annual revenues to the United States, Tan said. He added that the company invests over $3 billion year in research and engineering and $6 billion a year in manufacturing.
Soon after, he announced the bid for Qualcomm.
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