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Intel's Maloney to Take Leave After Stroke

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:58:08 EST

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (TheStreet) -- Intel's Sean Maloney, executive vice president and general manager of the chipmaker's architecture group, will take a few months of medical leave after suffering a stroke.

Intel, in a press release Monday, said Maloney's prognosis for a full recovery is "excellent" and he is expected to resume all of his business responsibilities after he recuperates.

Dadi Perlmutter, who serves in the same capacity as Maloney, will assume Maloney's duties, Intel said. ...

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Intel Reportedly Plans $2B U.S. Fund

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:57:57 EST

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (TheStreet) -- Intel is working with venture-capital firms to put together a $2 billion fund that would invest solely in U.S. companies, a report says.

Intel, which has a unit that places investments in many technology companies, has approached venture-capital firms about the idea of allocating a portion of their funds to U.S. companies. The plan would not require raising additional capital, a person familiar with the situation told the Wall Street Journal.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini will be in Washington Tuesday for a speech at the Brookings Institution. Otellini could disclose details of the fund at the event. Event organizers said the CEO's speech will focus partly on "the need to create a culture of investment in the United States." ...

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Chip Sales Constrained: Second-Half View

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:24:45 EST

The ECRI U.S. weekly leading economic indicators are pointing to a weakening of the U.S. economy in mid-2010, resulting in a slowdown in semiconductor revenues.

Personal consumption will remain sluggish in the second half of 2010 because of an ongoing jobless recovery, further deterioration in credit and continued weakness in home prices.

The ECRI U.S. weekly leading indicator forecasts economic conditions approximately six months in the future. ...

Micron to Buy Numonyx for $1.27 Billion

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:22:28 EST

BOISE, Idaho (TheStreet) -- Micron Technology agreed to acquire Numonyx Holdings, a maker of memory products, in a stock deal valued at $1.27 billion.

Micron will issue 140 million shares to Numonyx shareholders, Intel, STMicroelectronics and Francisco Partners. An additional 10 million shares will be issued ratably to Numonyx shareholders under certain conditions.

Micron, in a statement announcing the transaction, said the merger "strengthens Micron's position as one of the world's leading memory companies" with a broad portfolio of DRAM, NAND and NOR memory products. The deal also would help Micron gain "increased manufacturing scale globally," the company said. ...

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Intel to Finally Make Money on Atom, Part 2

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:55:06 EST

On Dec. 22, 2009, I wrote an article on TheStreet.com describing how Intel was finally making money on the Atom processor with its new (at the time) Atom N450. The basis of my argument was a press release from the company that "the new single core chip, called Atom N450, is about 60% smaller than present Atom processors and will require 20% less power."

It has come to my attention after searching Intel's Web site that the N450 has a die size of 66 sq. mm, much bigger, NOT 60% smaller, than its predecessor, the N230, with a die size of 26 sq. mm.

Why the smoke and mirrors? Intel has been on the defensive ever since The Information Network in January 2009 questioned whether Intel's slashed revenue of about $1 billion (for the fourth quarter of 2008 and first-quarter 2009) was because of its misjudging the success of the netbook and its Atom processor....

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Chip-Equipment Market: Uncertain 2010

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:45:39 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- I pointed out last week that semiconductor manufacturers need to spend in order for the equipment manufacturers to exhibit any real recovery, something that has eluded the sector as a whole since 2001.

Within the past month, many experts have announced extraordinary gains to be made in the semiconductor equipment market in 2010. In recent weeks, trade group SEMI and market research firm Gartner/Dataquest have issued forecasts calling for the chip-equipment market to grow in excess of 50% in 2010, following a decrease of nearly 50% in 2009. iSuppli last week called for 46% growth.

Part of the basis for these forecasts certainly must have come from announcements of large planned increases in capital expenditures, particularly among the memory manufacturers. ...

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Samsung Swings to Profit, Sees Big 2010

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:05:07 EST

SEOUL, South Korea (TheStreet) -- Samsung swung to a profit in the fourth quarter, earning 3.05 trillion won ($2.63 billion) on sales that were 37% higher.

Samsung a year earlier lost 22 billion won, the first net loss since it began reporting quarterly results in 2000.

Samsung reported fourth-quarter revenue of 25.32 trillion won vs. 18.45 trillion won a year earlier. ...

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Netlist Transforms With High-Margin Bet

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:10:35 EST

IRVINE, Calif. (TheStreet) -- Netlist shares have rallied an astonishing 670% over the last three months on the back of a product it hasn't even sold yet.

Netlist, which makes online memory subsystems, has become one of the early tech stars in this young new year. A recent pullback in the company's shares, though, has shone a light on the pitfalls of being a penny stock. Netlist has little institutional ownership and no analyst coverage, and a long string of quarterly losses and brutal competition from rivals, including STEC and Smart Modular, may give some investors pause.

But even without yet recognizing a single sale from its new HyperCloud memory module, Netlist's high-margin bet has put it back on traders' radars. Netlist CEO Chuck Hong and believers in Netlist are making the bet that HyperCloud will help complete the company's transformation from embattled commodity memory maker to an innovative powerhouse. Netlist CEO Chuck Hong. ...

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Chipmakers Need to Begin Spending

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:37:06 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The business climate for the semiconductor equipment industry is being undermined by chip manufacturers, not the economy.

It is widely known that semiconductor revenue coordinates well with gross domestic product. If economic conditions are favorable globally or regionally, consumers will have the resources to purchase items that contain semiconductors, whether they be PCs, cell phones, or automobiles.

One would think that there would be a correlation between semiconductor sales and equipment purchases, as more and newer equipment would be purchased to manufacture the additional chips. Historically, there was this correlation until the downturn in the industry in 2001. One of the major culprits has been the move to 300mm wafers, which as we have written about previously, utilize half the amount of equipment to process the same number of chips because of the two-times increase in silicon real estate on a 300mm silicon wafer compared with a 200mm wafer. ...

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Intel vs. AMD: Analyst's Toolkit

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:00:00 EST

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- Intel shattered earnings estimates last week, leaving many to expect the same from smaller chipmaker AMD.

AMD's stock, up 26% since Dec. 1, has more than quadrupled over 52 weeks. Intel has risen 61% in the past year. That suggests AMD has thumped Intel in earnings performance and chipped away at market share. That's simply not the case.

A comparison of basic metrics for Intel and AMD show a stark contrast between the two. Investors should consider the following data before jumping into AMD on a hunch because its gains aren't rooted in reality. Even a phenomenal earnings release tomorrow could fall far short of lending support to the massive share-price run-up. ...

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ASML Swings to Profit on Strong Bookings

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:15:43 EST

VELDHOVEN, The Netherlands (TheStreet) -- ASML Holding, the Dutch chip equipment maker, reported fourth-quarter earnings of 50.5 million euros ($71.6 million), a swing from a year-earlier loss of 88 million euros, as the recovery in the semiconductor sector is underway.

Sales in the quarter rose to 581 million euros from 494 million euros a year earlier.

ASML said net bookings in the quarter were 956 million euros, with 40 systems, leading to an order backlog of 1.85 billion euros as of Dec. 31. Its order backlog at Sept. 27 was 1.35 billion euros. ASM said it expects bookings in the first quarter of the "same order of magnitude" as the fourth quarter. ...

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Rambus Gets $900M From Samsung

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:22:38 EST

LOS ALTOS, Calif. (TheStreet) -- Samsung Electronics agreed to resolve all claims and license Rambus' patent portfolio covering all Samsung semiconductor products in a deal worth as much as $900 million over five years, the companies said.

Under the agreement, which settles high profile litigation over memory chips, Samsung will invest $200 million in Rambus stock, make an additional payment of $200 million and pay an additional $25 million a quarter for the next five years.

Rambus had filed patent infringement charges against Samsung and other chipmakers. It also had accused Samsung, Micron and Hynix Semiconductor of violating antitrust laws by conspiring to boycott its technology. ...

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Investors' Misperceptions Punish Intel

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:00:00 EST

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (TheStreet) -- Intel crushed analysts' earnings estimates last Thursday as the chipmaker reported higher-than-expected revenue. The stock, perversely and bafflingly, fell 3.2% the next day.

Analysts explained the share-price decline this way: Intel may have reached peak profitability, and the only way forward is down. Still, such a prospect in the infancy of an economic recovery after the deepest recession in eight decades is a difficult thesis to accept. (Fourth-quarter net income increased more than ninefold to $2.28 billion from a year earlier.)

The semiconductor industry is cyclical -- it follows the ups and downs of the economy -- and is correlated to the stock market. So the contention that Intel has reached its zenith in earnings would require investors to believe that the biggest semiconductor producer in the world is going to stagnate as the economy begins to grow again. That would also lead investors to think that the industry as a whole will decouple from the stock market, which is improbable. ...

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Taking Sides in Chip Wafer Debate

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:05:30 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- There are four camps strategically focused in the debate for the semiconductor industry to move to 450mm wafers from 300mm.

Camp No. 1 is Sematech, which is spearheading the charge for 450mm. Sematech, or Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology, is an association of semiconductor companies who make up 50% of the worldwide chip market. Members are Intel, IBM, Micron, Hewlett-Packard, National Semiconductor, Globalfoundries, NEC, Samsung, Renesas, Toshiba, Infineon, UMC, and Taiwan Semiconductor.

Sematech is targeting 450mm ''demonstration'' tools for the 32nm (nanometers) node and ''pilot tools'' at 22nm. ...

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Intel CEO Sees 3-D Revolution

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:39:20 EST

LAS VEGAS (TheStreet) -- Intel CEO Paul Otellini is predicting a 3-D revolution in the coming years, potentially spelling good news for the chip giant.

"We see 3-D moving from the studio to the home, and we're providing the compute horsepower to make it happen," he said during his keynote at the CES show late Thursday. "3-D use is the next thing that's poised to explode." More on CES 2010 >>Photo Gallery: 2010 CES Show >>CES 2010 coverage

The Intel CEO explained that this year's soccer World Cup, for example, will be recorded and broadcast in 3-D, and asked the audience to don 3-D glasses before showing a number of clips from movies and TV. In addition to James Cameron's latest blockbuster, "Avatar," the Intel chief showed a 3-D performance by Irish band U2 and a clip from a boxing match. ...

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