Sonki, I listened to the entire discussion but took no notes. Nonetheless, here are some of the highlights as I remember them.
-- Grove said the market for Intel products has fragmented into about seven sectors, which from his perspective is a very positive development for the company. He said Intel has about 12,000 people in R&D working to develop products for those sectors and that, he believes, gives intel a strong competitive advantage.
-- Answering an investor question about Intel's recent chip price reductions, Grove said this is a standard practice of Intel. He said the company does not make much money on higher priced chips when they are first introduced. The profits come later when volume goes up and prices come down.
-- Several investors asked Grove why the stock has dropped and the prospects for further buy-backs. He said he owns stock and wonders the same thing but does not know what motivates persons to buy and sell. He said Intel has been in a buy-back program for about 18 months and will continue to buy the stock as long as it seems to be a good investment.
-- Someone characterized Merced as a successor to the Pentium-II but Grove said that is not the case. Merced is for specialized high-end uses and is not viewed by Intel as the Pentium-II successor.
-- Grove said the internet is the next/current "strategic inflection point." He compared the internet to the development of the railroads, telegraph, radio, telephone, in the infrastructures they created and said Intel is heavily engaged in developing products for all aspects of the internet infrastructure.
-- When asked his assessment of future growth rates of the company, Grove said he did not want to make predictions but that the company had performed in the 16-20 percent range of growth over many years and that pundits who are paid to make assessments have said Intel will continue along those lines, but the numbers are not his.
I am sorry if I missed anything or mis-heard, but I think these represent his major points. Others may want to elaborate of fill in the gaps. Hope this helps, Diane |
