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To: Jdaasoc who wrote (71431)	5/1/2001 11:25:51 AM
From: Don Green	Respond to of 93625

Hyundai Scrambles for Cash Electronic News By Drew Wilson, Electronic Business Asia -- 4/30/01 The clock is ticking. Hyundai Electronics is struggling to raise cash before year's end when $4 billion of the company's crushing $6.2 billion debt comes due. One year after taking over LG Semiconductor, the world's No. 2 DRAM maker is fighting for survival. In 2000 Hyundai reported $7 billion in revenue, up 48 percent, and $1.2 billion in operating profit, up 132 percent. But when asset sales are factored in, the company actually had a $1.8 billion operating loss. An emergency strategy announced recently has the company selling off all divisions; cutting the workforce by 25 percent, raising nearly $800 million; and becoming a pure-play semiconductor company by summer. The financial trouble began last year when the company took over LG's chip division, raising cash for the purchase through $1.3 billion in corporate bonds. Then Hyundai continued to pour investment into final process technology in its own fabs in order to close the technology gap with DRAM leader Samsung, said Nin Tong Huang, analyst at ABN Amro in Seoul, South Korea. "That, plus the debt, (from the merger) made the company suffer a huge (capital) depreciation," Nin said. In hindsight, Nin sees the merger of the chip divisions of Hyundai and LG as a mistake. "Prior to the merger, there was no talk about capital expenditure or decision making," he said. Pulling out of debt may be tough. About 80 percent of Hyundai's chips are DRAMs, mainly in the commodity area. Overinventory and a slumping PC market has sent the commodity DRAM market south and there's no real consensus among analysts as to when prices will bottom out. Some say that will happen in the second quarter, others say year's end, or even early 2002. The DRAM market grew 20.7 percent to $29 billion last year, said Steve Cullen, DRAM analyst for Cahners InStat Group. This year he is predicting 20 percent growth, but also a 25 percent reduction in price per megabit. Moreover, double data rate DRAMs, which Hyundai has been hyping in the market, are ramping slower than expected, Cullen added. Delivering a further blow is the combination of a slowing U.S. economy and falling consumer confidence. B.S. Jon, analyst at Daewoo Securities in Seoul, said some 70 percent of Hyundai's chips are exported to various countries, but in the end their use is tied to U.S. demand. If the DRAM cycle doesn't show recovery soon, Hyundai may fall into a financial crisis such as that of Hyundai Construction, which went bankrupt, Jon said.

To: Jdaasoc who wrote (71431)	5/1/2001 12:15:55 PM
From: Scumbria	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

John, I stick to my prediction that by Sep RDRAM/SDRAM price difference will shrink to 20-30% It seems quite realistic to expect that the 200% differential will drop to 20% in three months. I think the US will pay off it's debt by December too. Scumbria

To: Jdaasoc who wrote (71431)	5/1/2001 12:22:07 PM
From: gnuman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 93625

jdaasoc If I believe the recent statements that only 1/5 of Dell's sales are P4,... What DELL said was, ``Currently, more than one fifth of all consumers buying home desktop computing systems from Dell are specifying P4 technology,'' said Hamlin." One fifth of home desktops is a long ways from 1/5th of PC sales. Don't know how it splits between Home and Business segments, but I suspect Business is larger. biz.yahoo.com JMO's

To: Jdaasoc who wrote (71431)	5/1/2001 4:53:07 PM
From: Bilow	Respond to of 93625

Hi Jdaasoc; Re the RDRAM premium over SDRAM. If you get to cherry pick your numbers, yeah, you might get the premium down to 20-30% by September. Heck, people on this thread have been cherry picking numbers for over a year that show RDRAM to be cheaper than SDRAM. I'm going to continue to quote the premiums the way I started a month ago, with the premium for RDRAM and DDR over SDRAM based on average of five lowest prices on PriceWatch for what are currently the fastest standard memory types (PC133, PC800 and PC2100), with no particular latency. I understand you find my comparison unfair, but I just don't see your argument. The primary difference between your numbers and mine is that you are using only "name brand" pricing for SDRAM, DDR and RDRAM, while I am using generic. This reduces the premiums for both DDR and RDRAM, as neither is now available as a cheap "generic" memory type. Eventually either RDRAM or DDR (or possibly both) will be available as cheap generic memory, but until then, in my book they are carrying a price premium. I'm thinking that the real difference is that I am pricing for the cheap hobbiest type market, while you are looking at the more upscale corporate market. But our two techniques will eventually converge to the same result. -- Carl P.S. If you want to see DDR pricing drop to SDRAM pricing earlier than even the name brand DIMM ratios, watch this site for the spot pricing: dramexchange.com