Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: KLIC) has named Dr. Raj Talluri as President and Chief Executive Officer with effect from September 1, 2026, ending an interim arrangement that has run since the company’s chief financial officer took on the top job. The board acted on August 13, 2026, seated Talluri as a director on August 17, 2026, and issued the announcement the same day. The appointment follows the semiconductor assembly equipment maker’s highest quarterly net revenue in more than a year, at $330.4 million.
Kulicke and Soffa builds the machines that attach and interconnect semiconductor die. It keeps principal executive offices at 23A Serangoon North Avenue 5 in Singapore and at 1005 Virginia Drive in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, is incorporated in Pennsylvania, and traces its founding to 1951. Its common stock trades on the Nasdaq Global Market.
The terms of the hire
The Form 8-K sets out an offer letter dated August 13, 2026. Talluri takes an annual base salary of US$750,000 and becomes eligible for the annual incentive compensation program with a target bonus opportunity equal to 110% of base salary. A one time new hire equity award carries a target value of US$14.0 million, split evenly between restricted stock units and performance share units. The restricted units generally vest in three equal annual installments over three years. The performance units are eligible to vest on continued service and on the company’s relative total shareholder return across a three year performance period, which ties a large part of the package to how the shares do against a comparator group rather than to any internal target.
His annual equity award is set at a target grant date value of US$6.0 million, expected to be delivered roughly 40% in restricted stock units and 60% in performance share units, subject to approval by the Management Development and Compensation Committee. The letter also provides relocation and expatriate benefits, including a temporary housing allowance and reimbursement of relocation expenses and of certain legal fees from negotiating the arrangements.
Severance follows the company’s Executive Severance Pay Plan. Outside an 18 month window after a change in control, a termination without cause or a resignation for good reason brings 24 months of salary continuation, continued medical and welfare benefits, limited continuation of life insurance, full vesting of the new hire restricted units and prorated vesting of the new hire performance units on actual performance to the termination date. Inside that 18 month window the salary continuation converts to a lump sum equal to 24 months of base salary plus the target annual bonus, with performance units vesting at the greater of target or actual performance. The company said Talluri has no family relationships or related party transactions requiring disclosure under Items 401(d) and 404(a) of Regulation S-K.
Who he is, and who stays
Talluri joins from Enovix Corporation, a Nasdaq listed advanced battery technology company, where he served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a board member from January 2023. From March 2018 through December 2022 he was Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Mobile Business Unit at Micron Technology, and before that he held senior executive roles at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies and engineering and business leadership roles at Texas Instruments Incorporated. He took a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993, an M.Eng from Anna University in 1986 and a B.S. in Engineering from Andhra University in 1984.
Lester A. Wong, who held the interim chief executive role alongside the finance job, continues as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Peter T. Kong, chairman of the board, said of the incoming chief executive that “His proven track record and visionary approach make him the ideal leader to guide our company into its next phase of growth”. Kong was re elected to the board at the annual meeting held on March 4, 2026 with 39,801,565 votes for and 3,915,643 withheld, alongside Jon A. Olson with 42,655,094 for and 1,062,114 withheld. At the same meeting shareholders approved executive compensation on a non binding basis with 41,099,018 votes for and 2,547,183 against, and ratified PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as auditor for the fiscal year ending October 3, 2026.
The business he takes over
Twelve days before the board acted, Kulicke and Soffa reported results for the third fiscal quarter ended July 4, 2026. Net revenue was $330.4 million, against $148,413 thousand in the quarter ended June 28, 2025 and $242,621 thousand in the preceding quarter. Gross margin was 47.8%. Net income was $57.4 million, or $1.07 per fully diluted share, against a loss of $0.06 per share a year earlier. On the company’s non-GAAP basis, which excludes acquisition related amortisation, restructuring and severance, equity based compensation and related tax effects, net income was $64.2 million, or $1.20 per fully diluted share.
Cash flow from operations was $45.2 million in the quarter and adjusted free cash flow was $41.0 million. The company repurchased 5.0 thousand shares at a cost of $0.5 million. Across the first nine months of the fiscal year net revenue reached $772,655 thousand against $476,523 thousand, and net income was $109,360 thousand against a loss of $6,166 thousand. Cash and cash equivalents stood at $368,573 thousand at July 4, 2026 against $215,708 thousand at October 4, 2025, with short term investments of $148,000 thousand against $295,000 thousand. The quarterly dividend has been held at $0.205 per share, and the board declared it again on August 27, 2026.
For the fourth quarter ending October 3, 2026 the company guided to net revenue of approximately $375 million plus or minus $20 million, GAAP diluted earnings per share of approximately $1.29 plus or minus 10%, and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of approximately $1.42 plus or minus 10%. It also said its expanded Advanced Solutions production facility is expected to be completed on schedule within the second half of fiscal 2027.
Analysis: what the appointment documents set out, and what they leave open
The sequence is on the record. Kulicke and Soffa appointed an outside chief executive after three consecutive quarters of improving revenue, from $148,413 thousand a year earlier to $242,621 thousand and then $330,409 thousand, with guidance pointing higher again. The interim chief executive who oversaw that stretch is not leaving; he returns to the finance role he never vacated. The filings record that order of events; they do not state what drove the timing.
The compensation design says something similar. Half of the US$14.0 million new hire award and 60% of the US$6.0 million annual target are performance share units keyed to relative total shareholder return over three years. A package weighted that way pays for outperforming a comparator group, which is a harder test in a cycle that is already turning up than in one at its trough. The 24 month salary continuation and the enhanced treatment inside the 18 month change in control window are the other side of the arrangement, and they are terms the board disclosed in full rather than by reference alone.
What the filings do not establish is direction. Neither the 8-K nor the press release names a strategic priority for the new chief executive, and the only forward operating detail the company has published is the Advanced Solutions facility timing and the fourth quarter outlook. Talluri’s background, as set out in the filings, sits in mobile silicon and battery systems rather than in assembly equipment; the qualification the directors cited was his record as an officer in the semiconductor industry.
Three figures in future filings will carry the record forward. The first is whether the fourth quarter lands inside the $375 million plus or minus $20 million range, since that number was set by the outgoing interim management and will be reported under the new chief executive. The second is the composition of revenue growth once the Advanced Solutions expansion is finished in the second half of fiscal 2027. The third is capital allocation: with $368,573 thousand of cash, $148,000 thousand of short term investments, a dividend held at $0.205 per share and buybacks reduced to 5.0 thousand shares in the quarter, those are the balance sheet and distribution figures on record through the recovery, and any change in them would appear in the next quarterly report.
