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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Charles Webster who wrote (48500)	2/22/1998 10:16:00 PM
From: chuckie	Respond to of 186894

Couple of new stories: Intel considers bailout of Samsung (I didn't believe it at first) By Anthony Cataldo SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Intel Corp. is reportedly having discussions with Samsung Electronics Corp. about making an investment in the struggling Korean electronics company, a move that could give Samsung a means to buy chip production equipment and snare Intel a stable supply of DRAMs. Sources familiar with the talks said Samsung's semiconductor business president, Y.W. Lee, held meetings in San Jose, Calif., with Intel's chairman and chief executive officer, Andrew Grove, to discuss the matter. An Intel spokesman declined to comment on whether talks were under way. It's unclear how much Intel is proposing to invest in Samsung, but sources said it could be $300 million or more. Samsung Electronics has taken a hard financial hit from a two-year slump in memory prices and the collapse of the South Korean won, which have forced the company to freeze all capital investments for its workhorse semiconductor business. Samsung recently handed out hundreds of pink slips to employees at its U.S. headquarters in New Jersey and at its U.S. computer subsidiary, AST Computer. Last year, Intel made a 10 percent investment in Samsung's fabrication facility in Austin, Texas, in order to guarantee access to a supply of DRAM. Dan Hutcheson, president of VLSI Research Inc. (San Jose, Calif.), said it would make sense for Intel to increase its financial stake to ensure Samsung a means of purchasing capital equipment and to assure itself of a supply of DRAMs in the event of a shortage. "We're looking at a situation where Japanese and Koreans have stopped investing in DRAM capacity, and with Windows 98 coming out in the next six to eight months we're facing the potential situation of another shortage," Hutcheson said. "Meanwhile, Intel doesn't want to get in a position like in 1994 and '95 in which there was limit on the number of processor sales because of the price of memory. And they wouldn't want to see the memory business collapse into a few suppliers." Korean chip makers will cut capital spending by 40 percent this year, Hutcheson said, and Japanese companies will cut spending by 20 percent. There are numerous ties that bind Intel and Samsung. Last May the companies announced plans to jointly develop new computer and consumer-electronics products. Also, Samsung's semiconductor division is one of the few vendors supplying Intel with the SRAM used as cache memory in Intel's Pentium II processors. And Samsung provides embedded DRAM technology for the portable graphics chips of Chips & Technologies Inc., which was acquired by Intel last year. Also: OEMs can expect Merced samples later this year Curtain lifted slightly on Merced processor More at: home.sprynet.com Good Luck, Chuckie