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Published on: 8/26/2009
Last Visited: 8/26/2009
The company employed about 30 workers when its investors decided to close the operation, said Luis Arzubi, general partner with Tallwood Venture Capital of Palo Alto, which put money into Sequoia.
Arzubi declined to say how much venture capital was invested in Sequoia, but VentureWire, a Dow Jones company, put the amount at about $64 million.
Founded in 2001, Sequoia was behind schedule in developing its multi-mode chips for wireless phones, Arzubi said.
Existing investors tried to attract additional capital from outside investors but were unsuccessful.
"Chip design is not an exact science," he said.
...
Sequoia, which sold its chips to phone makers, did have customers, mostly in Asia, Arzubi said.
But it also faced competition from larger, established wireless chip makers such as Broadcom and Qualcomm, which also integrate functions on a single chip.
In addition to Tallwood, Sequoia raised money from BlueRun Ventures, Cadence Design Systems, Gabriel Venture Partners, Huntington Ventures, Motorola and Third Point Ventures.
Investors have hired a firm that specializes in winding down failed companies to liquidate Sequoia, including its intellectual property, Arzubi said.