Tony & Intel Investors - Craig Barrett's views on the new Wireless Communications group - targeting a Multi-BILLION Dollar business !
"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 also will 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."
The acquisition of DSP Communications coupled with Intel's world class FLASH memory technology is going to to provide Intel with a unique synergy for becoming a dominant player in the Cell Phone component business.
Their DSP project with Analog Devices and StrongARM controllers will add to this synergy.
Paul
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12/20 7:58P (DJ)
Intel Sees Wireless Division Becoming Multibillion-Dollar Business
Story 0971 (INTC-D, INTC, I/SEM, I/TEL, N/DJN, N/DJWI, N/PER, N/WEI...)
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Intel Corp. Chief Executive Officer Craig Barrett expects the company's just-formed wireless unit to become a multibillion-dollar semiconductor force over the next few years.
"The opportunity here is big," Barrett said in an interview with Dow Jones. "I'd be disappointed if this isn't a multibillion dollar business over the next few years." Earlier Monday, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel (INTC) announced it has created a new division called Wireless Communications & Computing Group from its existing Computing Enhancement Group. The company said it has 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 (ERICY) 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 also will 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 and Senior Vice President Andy D. Bryant will assume some operational duties in addition to his fiscal ones. He now will 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 personal computer-microprocessor market, Intel's bread-and-butter business.
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