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Technology Stocks : ADI: The SHARCs are circling! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mike 2.0 who wrote (2530)	12/1/2000 1:00:03 PM
From: Jim Oravetz	Respond to of 2882

Yes, they have some business there, but again, no one company is more than 10% of total revenues. Sluggish Holiday Shopping Hits PC Sales By Peter Henderson , Reuters Dec 1, 2000 (5:24 AM) URL: techweb.com SAN FRANCISCO -- Research company International Data Corp. (IDC) is preparing to cut its widely-watched forecasts for personal-computer sales this year because of the slow start to the holiday buying season, company analysts said Thursday. IDC's revised forecasts, to be issued Monday, will reflect the sudden and unexpected slump in U.S. household consumer purchases taking hold in the fourth quarter, analysts said. “The previous U.S. forecast for all PCs is in the mid-to-high teens for the year. This will be substantially below that. There's an issue as to whether it'll even be double-digit,” said Roger Kay, an IDC analyst. “Retail's been pushing back for a month now. Inventory's been building up. I think you're going to see some pretty serious price wars,” he said. Announcements by computer makers Gateway Inc. (stock: GTW) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (stock: HWP) in the last two days have intensified fears that computer sales are heading into a broader slump. Loren Loverde, director of IDC's worldwide PC tracker program, laid the blame on consumers who, he said, have no incentive to upgrade existing computers. “We had expected a fourth-quarter uptick, but the softness in that segment of the market based on some vendor results right now is a little bit unexpected.” Stephen Baker, an analyst at PC Data Inc., which focuses on consumer sales, said retail spending on personal computers might not grow at all in 2000. “It is probably going to be about flat with last year with PC retail sales. I think everybody had been looking in the 15 percent [growth] range,” he said. Industry analysts had been looking for a particularly strong fourth quarter this year, because of a relatively weak result in 1999, when rebates from Internet providers had drawn sales earlier in the year. “This is a big surprise,” said Baker. “People thought given what we had seen last year, that this year there were some real opportunities for Christmas.” The silver lining is that the consumer electronics industry as a whole is still doing relatively well because of strong sales of digital cameras, CD-ROM drives and other computer accessories. One indication of that trend: October retail sales for the industry as a whole were up 12.2 percent compared with a year earlier to around $3 billion. But excluding desktop PCs, sales grew a faster 16.3 percent to $2.35 billion, he said. “I don't think that this is a PC products industry issue. It is a PC issue. People are still spending money,” Baker said. Jim

To: Mike 2.0 who wrote (2530)	12/1/2000 2:56:57 PM
From: BostonView	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2882

I think you're referencing to the AC'97 v2.1 codec for advanced audio signal processing which ADI developed with INTC and MSFT. (OK, I looked it up) I think ADI's other PC-based product categories include voltage and temp. processor controls, LCD amplifiers, and power management technology. I may be missing one or more. The interesting fact is that ADI has been working hard to gain share on the desktop, or what they call "content-per-pc". It's likely that even in a a slower growth or flat PC market they could generate higher revenues next year, though it's still a small percentage (about 5%) of their overall revenue. Talk about you're basic win-win...if consumers aren't buying PC's this xmas, it's probably because they're out buying other hot products like DVD players, digital cameras and camcorders, blackberry pagers, and home theatre surround sound systems. ADI has significant or market leading share in all these! 22% of last Q's revenue came from ADI computer/consumer products category (vs. 45% for communications and 33% for industrial). BV

To: Mike 2.0 who wrote (2530)	12/14/2000 2:15:10 PM
From: Scrapps	Respond to of 2882

TSMC buys outstanding Wafertech shares (UPDATE: Adds aquisition schedule, background) TAIPEI, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) (NYSE:TSM - news) said on Thursday it had reached an agreement to buy most of the outstanding shares in its U.S. Wafertech unit from three semiconductor firms for US$500 million. TSMC said in a statement it would own ``almost 100 percent'' of the company after buying stakes from Altera (NasdaqNM:ALTR - news), Analog Devices Inc (NYSE:ADI - news) and Integrated Silicon Solutions Inc (NasdaqNM:ISSI - news) for US$6 per share. TSMC, the world's largest foundry, or made-to-order chipmaker, currently owns 66.89 percent of Wafertech. The aquisition was expected to be complete by the end of theis year, the statement said. TSMC, Altera, Analog Devices and Integrated Silicon set up Wafertech as a joint venture in 1996, and TSMC increased its stake from 57.23 percent in 1998. The once loss-making subsidiary has begun to turn a profit in the past few quarters, boosting TSMC's bottom line. TSMC shares ended T$1.50 down at T$90.50 in line with a 1.19 percent fall in the benchmark TAIEX (^TWII - news).