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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GO*QCOM who wrote (55364)	12/21/1999 9:13:00 AM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Intel CEO Targets 'Multi-Billion Dollar' Wireless Unit By SCOTT EDEN (This article originally was published late Monday.) NEW YORK -- Intel Corp. (INTC) Chief Executive Craig Barrett expects the company's just-formed wireless unit to become a multi-billion-dollar semiconductor force over the next few years. "The opportunity here is big," Barrett said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires. "I'd be disappointed if this isn't a multi-billion dollar business over the next few years." As reported, Intel on Monday reorganized several units, folding the newly-acquired DSP Communications Inc. into a group that will make microchips for the cellular phone and wireless communications markets. "But I do want to put it into perspective," Barrett said. Because Intel has an annual revenue run rate of about $30 billion, the wireless business must generate at lest a billion on the top line to generate a significant amount on the bottom. "Our job is to take it to next level and win some business with some of the major tier-one cellular-phone players," Barrett said, particularly with Scandinavian rivals Ericsson and Nokia Corp. (NOK). He noted that Intel already sells flash-memory chips to those companies. The first big product rollout for the new wireless unit, Barrett said, will involve third-generation cellular chips in Japan, where the current technology is fast reaching capacity, and targeted 2001 for their release. Those developments will also involve combining the company's flash-memory technology with its logic chips, a package Intel hopes will help it dislodge the leaders in the market for wireless communications chips. Those companies include Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) and Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN), among others. DSP Communications, which Intel bought for $1.6 billion in October and will fold into its Wireless unit, "already has a foothold in Asia," Barrett said, and is already adding to Intel's bottom line, although he wouldn't offer a specific number. Also Monday, Intel said Chief Financial Officer Andy Bryant will assume some operational duties in addition to his fiscal ones. He will now head up the company's Internet business - both services marketed to customers and Intel's own internal e-commerce. The company currently sells about $1 billion of products each month over the Internet, Barrett said, and wants to boost the amount of raw material it buys through e-commerce as well. "We've been pushing very hard into the Internet space," Barrett said. Over the last year Intel has been on an acquisition tear, snapping up companies that make chips for wireless communications devices and networking equipment. According to some estimates, that segment of the semiconductor industry is growing three times as fast as the more mature PC-microprocessor market, Intel's bread-and-butter business.