"Peter Field is a principal at Starboard Value and also a director of Marvell Technology Group"
That's good. I'd be upset to hear that he had a conflict of interest.
Activist investor rages at Mellanox for dismissing Marvell's advances
InfiniBand/Ethernet tech supplier Mellanox is being targeted by an activist investor pissy that it rejected overtures from Marvell. Starboard Value has bought a 10.7 per cent holding in Mellanox, wanting to influence the company's management to create more value for shareholders (increase share price so we can make a profit …
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Sunday 26th November 2017 16:39 GMT Mark 110
I am with you both. Mellanox looks like a viable business and with the right management could gfrow to be a big player.
Starboard just bought into an undervalued (probably correct assessment) share, and are now putting stuff into the news to ramp the price up and get their quick buck. The seedier side of capitalism.
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Friday 24th November 2017 17:36 GMT Anonymous Coward
Omnipath may have played a role.
That said, Mellanox would do well to expand their scope, to say custom packaging and perhaps a reference ultra dense cluster rack with cost reducing mid plane copper
traces to eliminate cable costs.
Longer term, integration of interconnect on chip will eventually occur going after the fabric
adaptor market, but switches will still be required and Mellanox will remain in a strong position.
I think the cluster market lives in fear that IBM will simply buy Mellanox (c.f. summit and sierra systems).
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Saturday 25th November 2017 10:05 GMT Anonymous Coward
I must be old, because it still shocks me that so many companies are allowed to merge with no concern for the creation monopoly positions in markets. Of course, this appears to be the only way to compete with companies from countries that have considerable, direct, governmental control of industry. It is important to remember that it was the large companies in the "developed" world that pushed to move manufacturing/industry to the lower cost centers in the 1970s and 80s. We'll soon be devolved to "under developed" status. This will increase control by the new Royalty our wealthy Corporate owners. This process is already well underway in Trumpistan. Deregulation and lack of monopoly control. It's bad for almost everyone.
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Sunday 26th November 2017 16:44 GMT Mark 110
Agree completely - the test for mergers should be whether its good for the consumer. Currently it seems to be whether its good for the shareholder.
If there's no net benefit to the consumer then these mergers should be knocked back. Its then about building a successful company for long term profitability, instead of what currently happens which is putting a shine on the results to become a target for acquisition (Autonomy anyone?).
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Monday 27th November 2017 09:01 GMT Mark M.
This just reads; "Greedy American shareholder wants quick profit... now."
This Field chap managed to wrest control of Marvell from its original board of directors just over a year ago with just a 6% investment stake in Marvell... https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/28/marvell_lists_to_starboard/
Looks like he now wants to try the same contemptible trick with Mellanox. Probably bordering on being immoral and unethical.
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Monday 27th November 2017 10:41 GMT hoola
Active Investor
In other words, another bunch of self-serving greed shites that are just out to get everything the can in the short-term and bugger the consequences.
Calling them "Active Investors" makes it sound respectable. Just like Elliott, they are total and utter shites with no morals and simply do not care what the outcome is,
Just like hedge-funds managers, they should all be locked up as these people are the cause of so many problems it is no true
Biting the hand that feeds IT
