When he became president and chief executive officer of NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ:NXPI) in January 2009, the debt-ridden company was struggling to survive more than two years after separating from parent Philips Electronics. NXP was born in 2006, when Philips sold its semiconductor unit to a group of private equity firms.
"We were at the abyss," Clemmer recalled. "We could've fallen in. We had $6 billion in debt and were losing money."