Hi Joe,
I must disagree with you on all three points:
1. S. Korea does not factor directly into VLSI business.
2. I have followed VLSI since 1990, and have never seen a year that looks better for the company than 1998 looks right now. Management may have lowballed their guidance, to play it safe. With DBS and set-tops selling well, GSM continuing strong, DVD taking off, and the new CDMA chips coming out, there is potentially greater than 20% growth for 98 in the cards. I think they gave conservative numbers until there was more visability on the bookings.
3. Regarding the ETSI third generation cellular, the W-CDMA standard got the most votes, but not the required 71%. I have said this is more of a win-win situation for VLSI, as although W-CDMA is backed by VLSI's largest customer, the other standard is based on a combined GSM-CDMA technology, where VLSI is already a leading GSM supplier, and soon to be one of only a handful of CDMA chip suppliers. So it will be good for them either way, but for different reasons.
Regards,
Jim |
