How Henry built the fortune
Henry T. Nicholas III earned his fortune by turning research on communications chips into a business. While completing a doctorate in electrical engineering at UCLA, he worked with his professor, Henry Samueli, on integrated circuits for digital communications. In 1991 the two men founded Broadcom, each putting in a small amount of their own savings, with Nicholas taking the role of president and chief executive and Samueli leading the technical side.
Broadcom's timing was excellent. Its chips handled the conversion of signals in cable modems, digital cable boxes and networking equipment, just as millions of households began connecting to the internet and cable television went digital. The company signed large customers among equipment makers, grew quickly and went public in 1998. In the internet boom that followed, its stock soared, greatly increasing the value of Nicholas's stake.
Nicholas stepped down as chief executive in 2003. He kept a significant shareholding for years afterward, and the value of the founders' shares was carried forward when Broadcom combined with Avago Technologies in 2016 and the merged company grew into one of the largest chip groups in the world. How much of his original stake he still holds is not fully public, and his wealth has varied considerably over time as he sold shares and as the stock moved.
Companies and holdings
Broadcom is the main source of his wealth. Other interests and roles include:
- The Henry T. Nicholas III Foundation, through which he funds education and victims' rights causes.
- Nicholas Academic Centers, a program in Santa Ana providing tutoring and mentoring to students from low income families.
- Ties to the University of California, Irvine, where he has supported engineering and other programs.
He has also made private investments in technology and real estate, though these are much smaller than his Broadcom related holdings. The Nicholas Academic Centers have worked with thousands of high school students in Santa Ana, many of whom went on to become the first in their families to attend college.
Early life and career
Nicholas was born in 1959 in Cleveland, Ohio, and moved with his family to Southern California. He attended the United States Air Force Academy for a time before transferring to UCLA, where he earned a bachelor's degree, a master's degree and a doctorate in electrical engineering.
Before Broadcom he worked at TRW, the aerospace and defense company, on microelectronics for military communications systems. There and at UCLA he developed the connections and technical background that led to the founding of Broadcom. As chief executive he was known for a hard driving style and for pushing the company through rapid growth and a long series of acquisitions in its early years.
Broadcom's early culture reflected his personality: long hours, aggressive targets and a willingness to buy smaller chip designers to enter new markets quickly. The company expanded from cable products into Ethernet networking, wireless chips and set top box processors during his time as chief executive. He cited personal and family reasons when he stepped down in 2003.
Philanthropy and public life
Nicholas is best known outside business for his work on crime victims' rights. His sister, Marsalee Nicholas, known as Marsy, was murdered in 1983 by a former boyfriend. Shortly after her death, the family encountered the accused killer in a grocery store, released on bail without anyone telling them. Nicholas later funded and championed California Proposition 9 in 2008, known as Marsy's Law, which added rights for crime victims to the state constitution, including the right to be notified about proceedings. He then backed efforts to pass similar measures in many other states.
His public life has also included legal trouble. In 2008 federal prosecutors charged him in connection with stock option backdating at Broadcom and separately with drug related offenses. A federal judge dismissed the backdating charges in 2009, citing prosecutorial misconduct, and the drug charges were later dropped. In 2018 he was arrested in Las Vegas on drug trafficking charges, a case that was later resolved.
The Marsy's Law campaigns have made him one of the largest individual funders of ballot measures in the United States. Versions of the law have been adopted in a number of states, often through voter initiatives, though some have faced court challenges over how they were written and how they affect defendants' rights.