Shareholders of Conexant Systems have filed a class-action suit against the company, alleging Conexant misrepresented the success of the merger with GlobespanVirata. The suit was filed in New Jersey on behalf of purchasers of Conexant publicly traded securities between March 1, 2004, and November 4, 2004, and former GlobespanVirata shareholders who received shares of Conexant in the merger.

The complaint alleges that on March 1, 2004, Conexant completed its acquisition of Globespan in a merger transaction and claimed that it had made "outstanding progress toward integrating the organizations, systems, technologies and processes of Conexant and GlobespanVirata over the past two months" and was in a "strong position" as it began combining operations. The suit charges that the merger had not been successful and Conexant was facing severe integration problems with respect to the combined companies' parallel DSL and wireless technology offerings, as well as their sales and administration functions.

Additionally, the complaint says Conexant claimed throughout the class period that its WLAN business was experiencing reduced growth due to competition from Taiwan-based chip suppliers when, in fact, its WLAN business, which had been the top producer for WLANs, was not being integrated properly in the merger, and defendants were neglecting to develop and build products, resulting in massive loss of market share.

On Nov. 4, 2004, Conexant released its financial and operational results for the fourth quarter ended Oct. 1, 2004, reporting that its revenues of $213.1 million for the quarter decreased 20% from Q3 revenues of $267.6 million. The company stated that "'Conexant's sequential decline in revenues to $213.1 million in the fourth fiscal quarter was largely due to excess channel inventory that resulted from lower-than-expected customer demand ...'" On this news, Conexant stock fell 10% on Nov. 5, 2004.