Co-Founders Get Stock Windfall in Broadcom Sale

The co-founders of Broadcom Corp., one of this year’s hottest stock offerings, each harvested $29.7 million Wednesday in a secondary offering made by the Irvine-based chip maker.

Chief Executive Henry T. Nicholas III, 38, and Chief Technology Officer Henry Samueli, 43, each sold 430,000 shares at $69.

That follows the $6.5 million that each grossed in the company’s spectacular initial offering in April, in which Broadcom’s shares--priced at $24--zoomed to $53.63 in first-day trading.

Together, the pair still control 57.6% of the company, whose publicly traded shares are worth $545.8 million.

All told, Wednesday’s offering raised $207 million, most of which went to the company’s early investors. About 13% of the shares were sold by Broadcom, netting the company about $26 million, which it will use for general operating expenses.

The sale marks an unusually quick return to the stock market for Broadcom, a move that analysts said was prompted by a nearly 300% increase in the company’s stock over the past five months.

Broadcom, which makes computer chips that speed up Internet transmissions over ordinary phone and television lines, has traded as high as $90. Its shares fell 75 cents Wednesday, to $69.63, in Nasdaq trading.

Internet-related offerings such as Broadcom and eBay have been wildly popular with investors this year. Broadcom also is benefiting from investors’ eagerness to take advantage of companies that are on hot streaks.

Analysts expect secondary offerings from Standard Pacific Corp., a Costa Mesa home builder, and Intuit, a Mountain View financial software leader, to be warmly embraced in the coming weeks.

Broadcom last month unveiled a new chip containing cable-modem circuitry that used to be divided among three chips.

Analysts expect the single chip to reduce the cost of home equipment and next-generation cable modems.

Earlier this month, Broadcom won a contract from Scientific-Atlanta Inc., maker of cable TV set-top boxes, to produce semiconductors through 2000. Though financial details weren’t disclosed, Broadcom said it will deliver at least 500,000 chips to Scientific-Atlanta next year.

Some of Broadcom’s major customers, which also own stock in the company, also profited from the secondary offering. Intel Corp. sold 630,580 shares, netting $43.5 million. Scientific-Atlanta sold 340,000 shares, grabbing about $23.5 million.

As a group, 10 of Broadcom’s executive officers and directors sold about 1.17 million shares, for a total of $80.8 million.