The result of the dramatic struggle for the chairmanship of the Infineon supervisory board should be known today, according to an Infineon spokesman, but the result may not be released until quite late in the evening.
Earlier today, Infineon CEO Peter Bauer presented an upbeat tour d'horizon of Infineon's prospects.
Bauer said he expected a 20 per cent rise in revenues in 2010 and a sustained period of 10% margins.
Cost savings achieved over the past 12 months amount to €600m. In that period the Infineon share price has gone up 11x - from 35 eurocents to €4.
"For me it was the most challenging year of what has never been a really quiet time at this company," said Bauer.
In wireless ICs, where Infineon is No.4 worldwide, the company will concentrate on both ends of the market - smartphones and ultra-low-cost phones.
Bauer showed an Infineon-based phone selling for a retail price of €17 in India.
He said that the company's single-chip strategy for ultra-low-cost handsets would be extended to single-chip 3G phones.
"We want to take the lead in the market for power semiconductors, the IGBTs, the MOSFETs and mixed-signal products," said Bauer.
Here Infineon is going after higher-yield products, expanding its power portfolio to address applications with fewer volume quantities, but with higher product profitability.
The company is geared up for smart grids and smart meters. "We are the only semiconductor manufacturer to offer a huge portfolio for the implementation of smart grids", said Bauer.
Automotive is expected to be one of its highest growth markets. To promote its automotive ICs, Infineon has built an eBuggy to show off its automotive power-saving technologies.
"A green car does not have to be boring", said Bauer, "with their high starting torque, the acceleration performance of electric cars puts many sporty CO2 emitters in the shade at traffic lights."
Bauer expects to see the growth rates in security ICs to be highest of all sectors in the next few years. Infineon was No.1 in the security chip sector for the twelfth consecutive year, and is the largest supplier of contact-based and contactless chip cards for payment applications.
"We expect growth in government ID documents such as electronic passports, national ID, health and social security cards", said Bauer, "roughly every second one of these documents issued in 2008 incorporated an Infineon security chip."
Geographically, the company is shifting focus to Asia. Infineon is generating almost half its revenues in Asia, and a good part of these in China.
Infineon intends to extend production in its Wuxi chip packaging plant, and has signed a letter of intent with the China government to establish a another development centre - its fourth in China - in Yizhuan.
Infineon does not intend to relocate European plant to Asia, believing relocation is not cost-effective, but the expansion of further production capacity will take place in Asia.
The company will 'strongly' pursue its fab-lite CMOS production strategy.