Intel's Venture-Capital Investment Chief Exits -- WSJ
August 07 2020 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
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 tomio.geron@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 07, 2020 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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