November 2009 Archives

Ed the serial CEO has been foisted on his new company by the VC backers who want Ed to dress up the company for its forthcoming IPO. Ed's diary, which recently came into my hands, shows Ed finding the situation less straightforward than he expected.

Last week's post on: Why is MediaTek So Damn Good? which was  written after it was announced that MediaTek grew 21.7% last year, produced some extremely interesting responses.

Irwin Jacobs, founder of Qualcomm, tells an interesting yarn about a trip he made to China where he met a former President of China.

Why is MediaTek the IC star of 2009? Here's a wireless IC company which has never sold a 3G chip-set, which isn't leading-edge in terms of power-efficiency or performance, but which grew 21% last year.

In 1990 a young banker was put in charge of an unprofitable cellphone manufacturer with the brief to decide whether it was worth investing in it, or whether it should be sold off.

Good news for the eager band of ARM-based Netbook spotters, is that a general manager from the ODM spin-off from Asus, called Pegatron Technology, said the company has received a 'large volume' of orders for 'Smartbooks' (the name given to ARM-based Netbooks) from 'a number of clients'.

The high-tech world got saner in November. Intel settled its anti-trust dispute with AMD, Ericsson withdrew its anti-trust objections against Qualcomm, the EU dropped its anti-trust proceedings against Qualcomm and the EU agreed the terms to settle its anti-trust case against Rambus.

Thanks to Booz & Co for this one, the list of the top R&D spenders. Not a single semiconductor company in there, though Samsung comes in at No.12, IBM at No.13 and Intel at No.14. Electronics companies in the top 20 include Siemens (15) Cisco (19) and Panasonic (20). Here they are: the top ten R&D spenders for 2008.

The semiconductor industry is either being very smart, or uncharacteristically cautious, but it's not responding to full capacity by ordering a swathe of new manufacturing equipment.

The decision of GEC chairman Lord Weinstock to make the £100m investment GEC-Plessey Semiconductors (GPS) has been asking for since summer will not only give it the 0.5-micron CMOS technology it needs to compete, it also removes the question mark which had appeared to hang over GPS's future as part of the GEC group.

So starts a story in Electronics Weekly's edition of October 5^th 1994.

Ed has struggled after being parchuted into his latest CEO position by VC backers who want to see a company spruced up for an IPO. In his diary, which recently came into my possession, I see he's pleased one day when the Chairman of his lead VC suggests they meet up for a round of golf.

Defining a Techno-Ponzi scheme as a way of extracting money from investors without producing any deliverables, which is the best-ever Techno-Ponzi scheme?

In an age of IP law-suits and patent-trolls it is salutary to remember a time when copying technology was no big deal.

The stand-off between Wall Street and the semiconductor industry represented by Wall Street deciding the IC business is low-growth and its shares low-value, and the IC industry's belief that it is poorly served, poorly advised and under-valued by Wall Street, is a recent phenomenon.

There was once a computer company which needed a microprocessor. It asked Intel for a licence to the 286 and Intel said 'No'. National's and Motorola's microprocessors were adjudged too slow.

A Microsoft developer has stated on his Linked-In entry that he has been working on Windows 8 and it has a 128-bit kernel.

AMD-ers compiled some fascinating facts about the massive amount of evidence collected in the AMD vs Intel lawsuit which was settled last week.

 It took the EU Ombudsman 36,000 words, equivalent to 100 pages of a paperback book, to decide that the EU were wrong not to make an official note of a meeting between the EU and a Dell executive in the Intel anti-trust case, but were not to blame for encouraging AMD and Dell to exchange evidence.

Thanks to ODDEE for this one. Car companies' marketing teams have dropped some howlers in naming car models by failing to do due diligence on  the meanings of those names in different languages. Here are the ten worst:

Predictions that under-capacity, allocation and higher prices are around the corner in the chip industry, are starting to materialise. The SICAS figures for Q3 show the foundry industry was running at 91.9% of its capacity, and 300mm wafer production was running at 96% of capacity.

Could the ARM-based Netbook be about to happen? A Chinese OEM called Menq has produced one called EasyPC, while the launch of an initial version of Google's Chrome OS is said to be only a week away.

'Following the successful demonstration of its proposed Viewdata service last week, the Post Office has outlined its timetable for introduction of the service.'

So starts a story in the October 1^st 1975 edition of Electronics Weekly.

Intel and Newsweek have produced a report on the importance of innovation to economic growth.

Ed has been imposed on his new company by the VC backers without the involvement of the directors, founders and management. Ed's brief is to prepare the company for an IPO. His diary, which recently came my way, reports Ed's early struggles as he tries to fit into his new environment.

The proverbial fly-on-the-wall at Intel's Santa Clara HQ records an interesting sales meeting following the AMD settlement.

Back in 1997, Intel was clearly getting frustrated at the lack of progress by the telecommunications industry in delivering high-speed networks.

Well Arun Demeure was right on this one - the first ARM-based Netbook looks like coming from a wireless carrier rather than a traditional computer manufacturer.

About 20 years ago, the idea caught hold among the steel-manufacturers of a far-off country that the semiconductor business was a very good business to get into.

The story of their business involvement reads like a thriller, and it makes you wonder: Is there something personal between the two great Changs of the chip business - Morris and Richard?

Last week's anti-trust lawsuit brought by the State of New York against Intel, adds another pile of evidence gleaned from emails and company submissions, supporting the proposition that Intel gave financial inducements to customers not to buy AMD processors. The evidence is strikingly similar to similar email and company submissions published by the European Commission.

Thanks to Future Horizons for this one, the ten biggest chipless semiconductor companies. Collectively their revenues just topped $1 billion last year.

The skill of European engineers in Motorola's Geneva design centre has resulted in the first CMOS IC to be wholly designed and manufactured by the company in Europe.

So starts a story in Electronics Weekly's edition of October 1^st 1975.

A little while back I was in California listening to a seminar on mobile data services in automobiles. The prospect of a wide range of data services to be delivered to car drivers and passengers was discussed. The prospect of a multi-tens-of-billions-of -dollars market was anticipated.

Ed has had a tough time gaining credibility since being imposed as CEO on  his latest company by the VC backers. His diary, which recently fell into my hands, shows that Ed decided to try and gain some respect by accepting an invitation to speak at an industry conference.

The US press is quite comical in its attitude to Intel. Forbes magazine ran a piece last week saying the Attorney-General of New York brought anti-trust proceedings against Intel because AMD spin-off Globalfoundries is building a fab in New York State.

Jurgen Knorr, President of Siemens Semiconductors, co-architect of The Megaproject, the microelectronics collaboration between Siemens and Philips, and Founding CEO of the two Pan-European microelectronics R&D programmes,  JESSI and MEDEA, was feeling pretty chipper in 1994 - ten years after the start of the Megaproject.

It's always heartening to see good men prevail, and the complete exoneration of former Infineon CEO Ulrich Schumacher on charges of bribery, breach of trust and fraud is an excellent result of the recent Munich court case.

There was once a company which made a widely used, but faulty chip.

That New York is bringing anti-trust charges against Intel is a good thing. It shows the findings of guilty by the anti-trust authorities in Korea, Japan and Europe were not anti-American, and it means Intel may now be forced to change its ways.

My iPhone App has been approved by Apple and became available for sale in the Apple Apps Store this morning.

Thanks to Future Horizons for this list of the top ten fabless companies. Last year they collectively had $27 billion of revenues.

BT's new telly ad which shows a couple of family members settling down for a chin-wag and advising 'better use a landline' has an important kernel of truth. If you want to immerse yourself in a good goss, don't use a mobile.

"This time last year WSTS (World Semiconductor Trade Statistics) forecast a $240bn market in 2001, its latest forecast is $140bn," bemoans Ulrich Schumacher CEO of Infineon Technologies.

So starts a story in Electronics Weekly's edition of November 28^th 2001.

Ed is having a hellish time at his new company where he was parachuted into the CEO position by VCs. His diary, which fell into my hands recently, shows him lurching from humiliation to humiliation. In this entry, Ed goes out to meet a customer.

Last week's pair of 'Giving the Finger To Wall Street' posts here and here discussed how Wall Street pressures CEOs into harmful lay-offs and profitless growth. Now, it seems, Wall Street has another harmful effect on semiconductor companies: it pressures them into foregoing long-term R&D.