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Technology Stocks : Creative Labs (CREAF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brian Lempel who wrote (6238)	12/2/1997 6:38:00 PM
From: Jon Tara	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13925

Actually, Creative didn't buy OPTI - they bought their audio division. In doing so, they eliminated (or acquired the business of) one of the more important of their low-end competitors.

To: Brian Lempel who wrote (6238)	12/2/1997 8:13:00 PM
From: Fred Mah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13925

Brian, Opti and Creative Although Opti is generally considered a generic "clone" chipset supplier in the audio market, they have designed A/D D/A converters into their own products. Creative does not do this and typically get their A/D D/A converter chips from other sources. It's unclear exactly which since most of the chips are marked as "Creative Tech.." I know they have been using Philips D/A converters for the synthesis output on the AWE cards, most of the other existing parts are apparently old and outdated (no full duplex). Owning Opti technology audio could provide them with a quick way to control their own source of these parts.

To: Brian Lempel who wrote (6238)	12/3/1997 9:20:00 AM
From: Chris Sholler	Respond to of 13925

Expect them to use the products to attack the low-end and notebook markets. Would take CREAF too long to do their own parts for these segments, so this is a great way to get in. Also note the references to using Opti's back-end capabilities. When CREAF shows up at a foundry today, they have to have the foundry do the mask sets (think $$$$$$$). Now, Opti will provide the mask sets thereby reducing their overall COGS at the foundry. Also, expect something to happen with the acquisition of the core logic technology. Looks like lots of IP acquired in this deal.