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April 4, 2006 — FEI Co., a Hillsboro, Ore., maker of focused ion- and electron-beam tools for nanoscale characterization and research, announced late Monday that Vahe Sarkissian has stepped down as the company’s chairman, president and chief executive officer and will be leaving the company.
Sarkissian, who joined the company in 1998, would also resign as a director prior to the company’s annual shareholder meeting on May 11, according to an FEI release.
Raymond Link, chief financial officer, has been appointed to act as interim chief executive officer and will retain his chief financial officer role while the company conducts a search for a successor CEO. Link joined FEI in July 2005 from TriQuint Semiconductor Inc., where he held the position of chief financial officer and vice president of finance and administration.
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In the meantime, FEI has formed an internal management committee comprised of Peter Frasso, executive vice president and chief operating officer; Robert Fastenau, senior vice president and general manager of the nanoresearch, industry and nanobiology market divisions; and Robert Gregg, executive vice president of worldwide sales and service.
FEI has been on the slate to be merged or acquired at least twice in recent years. At the end of 2002, a $1 billion deal to merge with Veeco Instruments of Woodbury, N.Y., fell through. Based on combined 2001 revenues, it would have made the combined company the third largest U.S. supplier of metrology equipment. More recently, FEI terminated discussions to be acquired by Carl Zeiss AG of Germany.
FEI does not expect to make any additional executive leadership changes, according to the release.
William Lattin, lead director of FEI’s board, said in a prepared statement that the company is on track to renew its growth and that now is the appropriate time for a leadership transition. The company’s board has formed an executive search committee to find a new CEO.
The company’s stock, which trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol FEIC, could trade down as a result of the uncertainty, according to a research note published this morning by W.R. Hambrecht nanotechnology analyst John Roy. Roy reiterated his hold rating on the stock and his price target of $18.50. The stock closed Monday at $19.81.
“We continue to like the nano-tool space, but execution is critical,” Roy wrote. “The company has been trying to right-size itself, but while the vision and markets are solid, the execution has not been. Hiring a new CEO could be an improvement, but we recommend waiting until a new leader is identified before making a decision.”