Chip maker Broadcom has poached the boss of arch-rival chip maker Philips. From 3 January next year Scott A McGregor will take over the jobs of president and chief executive from current incumbent Alan E "Lanny" Ross. He also joins the Broadcom board.

McGregor announced his retirement from Philips Semiconductors last month and will work there until the end of the year.

Ross welcomed his replacement: "Scott is the ideal CEO for Broadcom at this point in its growth. He has an excellent understanding of our technologies and end markets, and he knows how to identify future promising emerging markets and profitably grow a business." Ross will remain a Broadcom board member after the changes.

McGregor has held senior positions at Xerox Palo Alto research park, DEC and Microsoft where he was the architect and development team leader of the original version of Microsoft Windows. He described his new job as "the opportunity of a lifetime". At Philips he is responsible for 30,000 employees and $6bn in annual sales.

More on the Broadcom website here. ®

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