Atmel Ousts CEO, Other Execs

Staff Reporter -- Electronic News, 8/7/2006

After an independent investigation regarding the misuse of corporate travel funds among some high-level execs, Atmel Corp.'s board of directors has fired George Perlegos, its president and CEO; and Gust Perlegos, its executive VP.

Atmel’s board has also ousted two unnamed execs: its VP general counsel and assistant secretary, and its VP of planning and information technology.

Both Perlegos have been asked to resign as directors of the company as well. The board has appointed Steven Laub, currently a director of Atmel and a 15-year industry veteran, as the company's new president and CEO, effective immediately.

The Perlegoses plan to fight the walking papers. According to statements released today by the company, both George Perlegos and Gust Perlegos, who currently remain directors of Atmel, maintain that the purported terminations are "unlawful and improper, and that the grounds cited for the purported terminations are baseless."

After news of his termination on Saturday, George Perlegos called a special meeting of Atmel's stockholders for October 5, as permitted under Atmel's bylaws, to vote on the removal of directors Steven Laub, Pierre Fougere, T. Peter Thomas, Chaiho Kim, and David Sugishita.

On Sunday, the five named directors fired back, purporting to elect David Sugishita as chairman of Atmel's board and to cancel the stockholders meeting called by George Perlegos. An injunctive action challenging the cancellation of the meeting and directing that the meeting go forward has been filed in Delaware Chancery Court.

The corporate shakeup at the company is currently not the only dent in Atmel's armor; the company is among the growing list of companies currently conducting internal investigations to examine backdating of stock options.

Although Atmel denied that today's ousting had anything to do stock options-related trouble, in July the company announced the launch of an investigation into the its stock option granting practices, and said it would likely delay the filing of its Q2 Form 10-Q past the SEC's extended due date of August 14.

To add insult to injury, on Friday Keller Rohrback L.L.P. announced that a shareholder derivative complaint has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against current and former company executives and board members.