Paul, et al, article from the Wall Street Transcript, courtesy of REH of the Rambus thread. Mentions Craig Barrett and his leadership capabilities, and another CEO in the same paragraph, but no name. Sanders, Corrigan, Halla? Nah, I say Sanders, hands down.
Special Semiconductor Edition of The Wall Street Transcript
BusinessWire, Tuesday, December 08, 1998 at 14:42
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 8, 1998--Leading
analysts examine
the Semiconductor industry in the just-published Annual
Semiconductor
edition of The Wall Street Transcript, a vital review for investors
and companies.
1) An in-depth roundtable forum featuring four distinguished
analysts: Charles F. Boucher of Donaldson, Lufkin, & Jenrette,
Jonathan Joseph of NationsBanc Montgomery Securities, Daniel T.
Meyers
of Lehmen Brothers, and Bruce Walicek of BT. Alex. Brown. The
panel
discusses sector demand drivers, specialized logic and
mixed-signal
technology, commoditization, pricing trends, M&A activity in the
sector, and debates the role of Asia after the crisis. Joseph states,
"Japan continues to shrink as both a manufacturer and a consumer
of
electronics while Taiwan is in ascendancy. Korea seems to be on
hold,
and new prospects probably will develop in China." While
Meyers says,
"In Japan, Taiwan, and Korea, it's not a positive outlook for
consumption. I would say that China is the only bright spot in Asia
right now. Unfortunately, I don't think it's big enough to have a
major impact. We think there's a lot of upside in consumption,
given
where the conditions of those economies are right now, but we
don't
see any catalyst to get it started."
Companies are approaching capacity issues differently as they
strive to balance supply and demand. Boucher asserts, "A few
months
ago, Siemens (NASDAQ:SMAWY) shut down an 18-month-old
DRAM fab that it
had built in England. A number of the Japanese companies have
announced closures of some of their older factories. Consolidation
is
also occurring." But Walicek states, "While we have seen some
fairly
dramatic capacity reductions, like the Siemens plant, I do think
there
is more capacity that can be turned back on that will need to
worked
through. We're getting some reports that Korean suppliers that had
reduced their DRAM output earlier this year are beginning to turn
that
capacity back on. Also, we're hearing that the Phase-II Austin plant
of Samsung is being restarted."
Other topics addressed by this illustrious panel: industry
consolidation, Asian lack of access to capital, outdated capacities,
investment approaches, the IPO outlook, public and private
acquisitions, and investor concerns; including high p/e ratios, and
predictions about the timing of a turnaround in the sector.
The panel offers several investment recommendations, including:
Vitesse (NASDAQ:VTSS), Sipex Corporation (NASDAQ:SIPX),
Micron
Technology (NYSE:MU), and Level One Communications
(NASDAQ:LEVL),
about which Walicek states, "They are a leader in the fast ethernet
market, and they are well positioned in the gigabyte ethernet space
as
that standard emerges in 1999."
2) An "Off-the-Record" survey of analysts and industry experts,
who praise and/or criticize 21 Semiconductor companies and
managements, includes several recommendations and a few
admonishments.
Accolades for Donald VanLuvanee of Electro Scientific Industries
(NASDAQ:ESIO) as "both a good day-to-day manager of the
business, as
well as a visionary who has a long-term game plan."
Acclaim for Craig Barrett, the new CEO at Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)
as
his leadership is called "top notch" and an industry insider
proclaims, "Net/net, you've got to give him the top marks."
But, another semiconductor company's CEO fares poorly with
experts who say he "takes the big turkey award, " and "should
probably
exit gracefully and bring in some new managers." An analyst says,
"the
company has good technology and good designers," but is
"probably one
of the poorest-managed companies in the industry."
Other companies mentioned in this special 20-page Semiconductor
section include: Advanced Micro Devices(NYSE:AMD), Altera
(Nasdsaq:ALTR), Applied Micro Circuits (NASDAQ:AMCC),
Atmel
(NASDAQ:ATML), C-Cube Microsystems (NASDAQ:CUBE),
Cypress
Semiconductors (NYSE:CY), FEI (NASDAQ:FEIC), Integrated
Device
Technology (NASDAQ:IDTI), Kulicke & Soffa
(NASDAQ:KLIC), Linear Tech
(NASDAQ:LLTC), LSI Logic (NYSE:LSI), Maxim Integrated
Products
(NASDAQ:MXIM), Micron Technology (NYSE:MU), National
Semiconductor
(NYSE:NSM), OMC-Sierra (NASDAQ:PMCS), Rambus
(NASDAQ:RMBS), Semtech
(NASDAQ:SMTC), Taiwan Semi (NYSE:TSM), Texas
Instruments (NYSE:TXN),
Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO), VLSI Technology
(NASDAQ:VLSI), and
Xilinx (NASDAQ:XLNX).
For information on how to obtain a copy of this issue, see
twst.com or call (212) 952 - 7433. The Wall
Street
Transcript does not endorse the views of any interviewee nor does
it
make stock recommendations.
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