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Technology Stocks : Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: visionthing who wrote (29609)	9/15/1999 8:39:00 PM
From: unclewest	Respond to of 93625

Uncle--Looks as if you missed Floyd down there in Florida, but he seems to be headed right for us now. (Maryland/Virginia) vt, leave right now...before the storm. go to rocky's... order the roast beef dinner...awesome go home in 2 days! unclewest worked for me. good luck...stay well...God bless

To: visionthing who wrote (29609)	9/16/1999 2:07:00 AM
From: bundashus	Respond to of 93625

Here is item about RMBS. I would make the section about RMBS in bold, but I don't know how to do it. Semiconductors Systems & Software Design Technology People Toshiba lowers estimates for 1999, plans to shed Tohoku stake By Anthony Cataldo EE Times (09/13/99, 3:34 p.m. EDT) TOKYO — Japan's largest electronics companies are taking steps to clean up their balance sheets as continued weakness in semiconductor prices dash hopes of a return to profitability this fiscal year. Toshiba Corp. today announced it will sell off its 50 percent stake in the 12-year-old Tohoku Semiconductor Corp. to partner Motorola Inc., which is trying to upgrade its semiconductor operations in the Sendai area where the fab is located. Toshiba, which uses the plant to make 8- and 16-bit microcontrollers, plus DVD and CD-ROM chip sets, will shift its production to its factories in Oita and Iwate, a Toshiba spokesman said. Toshiba and Motorola did not disclose the price of the transaction. The transfer of ownership should be completed by the end of next year. The announcement was made the same day that Toshiba said it has revised downward its sales and profit forecast for fiscal year 1999 due to weakening semiconductor prices. The company expected it would garner $233.6 million in net income from $53.27 billion in consolidated sales, but now expects to suffer a loss of $140.2 million on $52.99 billion in sales. As part of its forecast revision announcement, Toshiba said it will decommission an aging microelectronics center in Kawasaki, which housed a pilot fab line, and work off inventory at its semiconductor division. Meanwhile, NEC Corp. is preparing to announce by the end of this month a restructuring plan that has been in the planning stages for six months. A company spokesman did not disclose specifics, but the Nihon Keizei Shinbun recently reported that NEC plans to liquidate or consolidate laggard businesses and give greater autonomy to others. An NEC spokesman would not comment on that report or on the specifics of the plan, but acknowledged that profound changes are in store for unprofitable business segments such as home electronics, a regional software division and the company's defense business. "I'd say it'll be about a nine on the Richter scale," the spokesman said. The corporate shakeups come as Japan's domestic economy appears to be coming out from its trough, and semiconductor sales have picked during the first half of the year. Still, price pressures continue to drag down profits. Earlier this year, Toshiba had taken steps to reduce its exposure to DRAMs by slashing production output of 64-Mbit DRAMs this year and shifting to 128-Mbit DRAMs. But Toshiba found itself faced with competitors with similar plans, causing 128-Mbit DRAM prices to plummet faster than expected. Toshiba was counting on an average selling price of $23 for the fiscal 1999, but now projects that the price will actually be about $18, the spokesman said. What's more, the company expects sales of premium-priced Rambus DRAMs, which will start to ship in volume for systems based on Intel's Camino chip set and Sony's next-generation Playstation in the second half of 1999, to offer little opportunity to bolster profits. By next March, Toshiba expects to produce about 2.5 million Rambus DRAMs a month out of a total of 23 million 64-Mbit equivalent DRAMs monthly. So-called system-on-chip sales have been another disappointment as high development costs coupled with fierce competition have squeezed profits. "Last year, due to the consumer market saturation, we tried to get orders with very cheap prices, but at this moment such prices are stressing our profits for system LSIs," the Toshiba spokesman said. Toshiba is now counting on its agreement to manufacture a 128-bit CPU for the Playstation 2 of Sony Computer Entertainment Corp. as a means of shoring up profits. The company expects to ship two million of the CPUs to Sony between October and March of next year.