Hello, Brian. During my conversation with Mike Mazzoni of OPTI, I specifically asked him about their investment in a fab in Taiwan. I was told that the purpose of the investment is to get favorable treatment for production orders in terms of cost and timing. However, he said that in case of a liquidity squeeze, OPTI has the option of delaying the remaining payments.
I was also told that OPTI has about 20% chip set market for portable computers and with their new products, they are trying to make more progress. Furthermore, with Intel gradually withdrawing from the Pentim chipset market, it also possible for OPTI make some inroads in the desktop chipset market.
I believe that there is a market for OPTI if their products are high in performance and low in cost. However, it is hard for me to find out the truth for not having the necessary technical knowledge. If anyone out there has any specific knowledge about chipset, please jump in and give us your opinions.
Moving to another topic, since AMD wants to get into the chipset business for its own cpu, why does AMD not buy from OPTI and the like? Or go a step further to buy a company like OPTI. The total market value of OPTI is only about $70 million, which is pocket money for AMD. Let's say AMD pays $140 million for OPTI, they also get $40 million cash and a bunch of other liquid assets, and the net price for the chipset technology is minimal. Anyway, just a thought.
Hopefully, my positive impression about the forthcoming 4th Q results of OPTI is not false. Good luck to all of us.
Regards.
Baoho |
