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

To: Orion who wrote (35510)	12/2/1999 4:06:00 PM
From: Don Green	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Rambus closed at 71 5/16 up 1 1/16 on 909 thousand shares. Sox Index up 28.40. This stock is real sick.. It will need a neutron bomb to get shorts to cover anytime soon. Only real question or doubt is how well Rambus can hold up on a strong down day. Don J.L.S.

To: Orion who wrote (35510)	12/2/1999 4:08:00 PM
From: spliff	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

RMBS on hold indefinitely..HYUNDAI IC MANUFACTURING Smaller size, bigger plans The quake that shook the world FRESH from its merger with LG Semicon, Hyundai Semi-conductor Group has been renamed Hyundai Microelectronics and is looking at spinning off from its parent company. The divestiture could come as early as the first half of 2000, Hyun-dai officials say. It's not necessary to be part of a large company in order to compete in the DRAM business, according to Hyundai Micro executives. With Hyundai's manufacturing capability and the sheer number of customers coming from the merger, the semiconductor unit believes it will be able to sustain growth without the backing of the parent company. "Size is nice if you are Godzilla, but the business is now about how efficient you are and how quickly you can move in the market," says John Klinestiver, senior vice president and chief administration officer at Hyundai Microelectronics. The planned spinoff represents a desire to be profitable. Rather than losing money year after year, the company wants to be responsible only for its own financials and not for the overhead of a Korean chaebol. By being independent, Hyundai Microelectronics will be able to adjust its strategy in various markets, Klinestiver says. This will enable it to make more profitable decisions rather than worrying about the concerns or profits of a larger group, he adds. "It might put them in a good position to react to market conditions and in theory, [Samsung Micro] could be a more nimble company in the long run," says Jim Feldhan, president of Semico Research, a US market research firm. Because of the current memory shortage, now might be the right time for a spinoff as well because profits will be up and the end markets will be good next year, Feldhan says. Hyundai predicts the DRAM market will hit $30 billion by next year. That number is optimistic compared to estimates from Dataquest, which forecasts the DRAM market in the year 2000 will grow to $26.8 billion. In-Stat predicts the market will come in at $28 billion in 2000. Farhad Tabrizi, vice president of strategic marketing and product planning for Hyundai's DRAM business unit, says the company believes PC 133 SDRAM will be the dominant memory next year in PCs and has put its direct Rambus DRAM plans on hold indefinitely. As a result, Tabrizi says it will produce more double data rate (DDR) DRAM than Rambus DRAM next year. Hyundai also is planning to build up its flash and system IC portfolios. The company plans on increasing its SRAM/flash sales to 8% of its total semiconductor revenue by 2001, up from 2% this year. System ICs are expected to increase from 5% this year to 15% of chip revenue in 2001. DRAM will remain the big money maker for the company, but it will command less of the company's over-all business, going from 93% now to 77% of product sales in 2001. "If they don't expect the DRAM market to grow, they need to find other markets to get into and that is what they seem to be doing," says Jim Handy, senior analyst at Dataquest. "Having to deal with the pricing problems of DRAMs over the years, it has been a kind of wake-up call in terms of how dependent (Hyundai) is in the DRAM business," Feldhan says. "Focusing on system IC, flash and SRAM will help them diversify and get into numerous emerging markets."