The Wall Street Transcript Publishes
Semiconductor Management Performance
Report
PR Newswire - November 30, 1999 16:00
NEW YORK, Nov. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Three leading analysts and six
Semiconductor CEOs examine the Semiconductor sector in the latest
issue of The Wall Street Transcript (212-952-7433) or
twst.com
In a vital review of this sector for investors and industry
professionals, this valuable 56-page report features:
1) The TWST confidential Off The Record survey (7,000 words) of
management performance at 21 Semiconductor firms asked market
insiders about the ability of management teams to create shareholder
value. In a sector where many management teams are praised for their
vision, some CEOs are criticized, while others receive top marks for
their efforts.
W.J. Sanders III, Chairman & CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:
AMD), is criticized by an industry analyst, "There are some negative
things that deserve pointing out at AMD. The biggest problem at
AMD is that they're managing by semantics - fractional management,
micro-management overall."
Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI), led by Chairman Ray Stata and Jerald G.
Fishman, President & CEO, is forging an identity, according to this
specialist. "Analog Devices is basically focused on execution. It's a
smaller version of Texas Instruments in the eyes of many investors,
but it's very quietly forging an identity of its own. It's moving away
from butting heads with Texas Instruments, which used to happen a
couple of years ago, and is beginning to come into its own as a
company focused on some high volume markets -- motor control,
electromechanical sensors, and the like."
James C. Morgan, Chairman & CEO of Applied Materials (Nasdaq:
AMAT), is highlighted by a Wall Streeter. "Jim Morgan is a visionary
who is very highly regarded by the industry. He's been around,
leading Applied Materials, since its sales were $20 or $30 million. Now
they're at $4 billion. They hope to be a $10 billion company by 2003 or
2004, and it looks like they're halfway there already. If the industry
growth estimates are correct, we're going to see 50% growth in the
year 2001."
Astute acquisitions by Atmel (Nasdaq: ATML), headed by George
Perlegos, Chairman, President & CEO, states a sell sider, "Atmel has
done an excellent job of repositioning themselves from a commodity
memory supplier to more of a value-added solutions provider. They've
made some very astute acquisitions over the last year or two, which
have positioned them really well in the red hot wireless
communications space."
Performance well ahead of plan at Conexant Systems (Nasdaq: CNXT),
led by Chairman & CEO Dwight W. Decker, concludes a specialist,
"Conexant Systems was a spin-off of Rockwell Semiconductor. It's the
largest pure play communications IC company, with a broad portfolio
of offerings compared to many of the competitors, which have only
one or two product lines. The other thing that is most interesting is
their fundamental performance to date. The stock was spun out at
about $9 or $10 and is trading today at about $50 or $55. That's over a
one-year period, approximately 11 months. So the fundamental
performance has been well ahead of plan, guided by Dwight Decker
and his team."
Andrew S. Grove, Chairman of Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), and Craig R.
Barrett, President & CEO, are singled out by an analyst, "Andy Grove,
the Chairman of Intel, is definitely one outstanding guy! He's been a
leader for a long time and has led the company through good times
and bad times."
To read a free interview excerpt in which Craig Barrett is evaluated see
archive.twst.com
Kevin N. Kalkhoven, Co-Chairman & CEO of JDS Uniphase (Nasdaq:
JDSU), and Jozef Straus, Co-Chairman, President & COO, are
commended for a great job by a money manager. "The guys at JDS
have done a really great job of corporate engineering. They've gone
out and acquired a lot of key technology in just the right area, and
built a company that's incredibly well positioned in one of the best
marketplaces. So here is an example of where we can track exactly what
management has done and attribute it directly to management."
Linear Technology (Nasdaq: LLTC), headed by Robert Swanson Jr.,
Chairman & CEO, and President Clive B. Davies, needs to figure out
where its going, states a pro, "Linear's execution is phenomenal!
Longer term, this management needs to ask itself, 'What do we want to
be when we grow up?' It's a standard analog company selling catalog
analog parts. It's done a great job, just absolutely marvelous! But the
company is now large enough that it has to expand beyond this
business, and we don't see anything coming out of them that gives us
a clue as to what they want to be."
Wilfred J. Corrigan, Chairman & CEO of LSI Logic (NYSE: LSI) is
singled out by a Wall Streeter, "LSI Logic has a couple of things going
for them. The first thing is that they had enough guts to build a fab at
the bottom of the last cycle."
John F. Gifford, Chairman, President & CEO of Maxim (Nasdaq:
MXIM), runs a tight ship, in the opinion of this specialist, "Maxim did
well in having the vision to focus on the RF marketplace and the fiber
optics marketplace about three years ago, while everybody else is
going there right now. And John Gifford runs a tight ship. He's very,
very cost-conscious and very, very focused on bringing everything
down to the bottom line.
Raymond D. Zinn, Chairman, President & CEO of Micrel (Nasdaq:
MCRL), focuses on the basics, states a sell sider, "They provide
best-of-class analog products for the power management sector, but
have recently moved beyond that. The biggest capability of Ray Zinn,
the CEO, is targeting high growth end- markets up to two years before
those markets start to become ripe for growth and investing money
there. That's probably his best attribute."
James V. Diller, Chairman of PMC-Sierra (Nasdaq: PMCS), and Robert
L. Bailey, President & CEO, are commended by a pro for being
visionaries, "PMC- Sierra really stands out in the communication
space as kind of the most visionary in terms of a future product
roadmap and the best in terms of current execution. PMC-Sierra has
been the best performing stock, and it's because of the CEO, because
of the management team."
David A. Norbury of RF Micro Devices (Nasdaq: RFMD) understands
his business, claims a Wall Streeter, "Dave Norbury at RF Micro
Devices is an extremely good team player and is very well liked by the
investment community as being the person who understands his
business."
David D. Lee, Chairman, President & CEO of Silicon Image (Nasdaq:
SIMG) is highlighted by an industry expert, "What's great about the
management there is basically how they have maneuvered into
becoming a pretty important player in determining what technology
that market moves into."
A sellsider singles out Morris Chang, Chairman & President of Taiwan
Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM), "Morris Chang, Chairman of Taiwan
Semiconductor, is a standout. He is one of those visionary titans that's
basically revolutionized the industry."
Willem P. Roselandts, President & CEO of Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX), is
highlighted by a Wall Streeter, "Xilinx has done a wonderful job!
Willem Roselandts has engineered one of the best turnarounds in the
semiconductor business after a period of underperformance where
their product execution was underperforming quite badly."
Firms reviewed in Off The Record include:
Advanced Micro Devices, Analog Devices, Applied Micro Circuits,
Applied Materials, Atmel, Conexant, Cypress, Intel, JDS Uniphase,
Linear Technology, LSI Logic, Maxim, Micrel, National Semiconductor,
Power Integrations, RF Micro Devices, Silicon Image, Taiwan
Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Vitesse Semiconductor and Xilinx.
This 56-page Semiconductor Issue also includes:
2) Semiconductor Industry -- In an in-depth Analyst Roundtable (9,000
words), Jonathan Joseph of Salomon Smith Barney, Daniel Myers of
Lehman Brothers and Joseph Osha of Merrill Lynch examine inventory
levels, pricing trends, Taiwan earthquake impact, chip shortages,
capacity additions,
Japan/Korea market outlook, capital spending trends,
System-on-a-chip market, stock valuations, the outlook for the sector
and specific stock recommendations.
For a free interview excerpt in which Myers explains why he feels there
is more time in the up-cycle for semiconductors see
archive.twst.com
For a list of the extensive collection of Semiconductor analyst and
CEO interviews available see twst.com
For a free interview excerpt in which Myers explains at length why he
selects Conexant as his Single Best Idea see
archive.twst.com
3) Six extensive (average 2,500 words) CEO Interviews with top
management from the following sector firms discussing their future
plans and outlook for their firm and the Semiconductor sector:
TelCom Semiconductor, Actel, Mattson Technology, Maker
Communications, Ibis Technology, GaSonics International.
To obtain a copy of this insightful 56-page report, see
twst.com or call 212-952-7433. This special
section is also included in the TECHNOLOGY Sector of TWST Online
at twst.com
The Wall Street Transcript is a premier weekly investment publication
interviewing market professionals for serious investors for over 35
years. Available at twst.com TWST Online provides free
Interview excerpts. For highlights, recent recommendations by
analysts and money managers and business news, visit
twst.com
Do a free search of the extensive TWST Archives at
archive.twst.com
The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse the views of any
interviewee nor does it make stock recommendations.
SOURCE Wall Street Transcript
/CONTACT: Peter McLaughlin of The Wall Street Transcript,
212-952-7433/
/Web site: twst.com
(AMD ADI AMAT ATML CNXT INTC JDSU LLTC LSI MXIM
MCRL PMCS RFMD SIMG XLNX) |
