Amid market slump, Telegent cancels IPO, looks for new CEO

Telegent Systems, a maker of chips for TV on cell phones, has withdrawn its filing for an initial public offering and has begun the search for a new chief executive. The ostensible reason is that the stock market has tanked, thanks to the economic turmoil in Greece (the Dow Jones is down 3.6 percent as we write).

The company isn’t treating this development as bad news. Rather, Samuel Sheng, the current president and CEO, said in a statement that the company is seeing very rapid adoption of its chips in emerging markets. Sheng, who asked for the change, will become chief technology officer, after the company finds his replacement.

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The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said today that it has sold more than 80 million chips since 2007. Those chips enable cell phones to receive analog TV signals. In the developing world, cell phones with such chips have become very popular because that’s often the only way those users can watch TV.

As for the canceled IPO, Sheng said, “We are able to pursue our growth and diversification goals with the working capital generated from our operations as a private company, and are choosing to invest in the technology and leadership that will carry us forward before we enter the public market.”

Telegent has more than 100 customers using its chips, including two of the top five mobile phone makers in Taiwan.