The W-CDMA baseband chip business is morphing in real time, as various market pressures push and pull the players to partner, diversify their customer base or pursue less-demanding technologies.Data from Forward Concepts (see chart) shows that last year Texas Instruments Inc. was the global...
Corporate infrastructure provider Avaya Inc. announced an $8.2 billion deal under which it will be bought out by two private-equity firms. The transaction is just the latest in a growing line of private-equity buyouts in the telecom industry.Under the terms of the agreement, Silver...
Alltel Corp. announced Sunday that it agreed to be acquired by two private-equity firms in a $27.5 billion transaction.The buyers are TPG Capital, the global buyout group of private-investment firm TPG (formerly Texas Pacific Group), and GS Capital Partners, the private-equity vehicle of The...
Texas Instruments Inc., established in 1930 to develop oil exploration technology, has grown into a predominantly wireless-based powerhouse with $14.3 billion in annual revenue last year. Its main customer for its digital signal processors is Nokia Corp., the world's largest cellphone vendor. By revenue,...
MILPITAS, Calif.-Chipmaker LSI Logic Corp. jumped into the wireless arena by scooping up Agere Systems Inc., a mobile phone chip producer. LSI develops chips for hard drives and DVD recorders, while Agere competes in the communications chip market against powerhouses such as Texas Instruments...
Trying to form a sense of the sprawling chip market for mobile phones is akin to getting a tape measure around an elephant's waist. With dozens of players and product types, the chip industry that enables the fantastic functions of today's mobile phones is...
Representatives from the former Flextronics Software Services business are making the media rounds, clamoring for attention, now that the company is about to announce its new identity-fully six months after being weaned from its Fortune Global 500 parent last spring. Six months is a...
AUSTIN, Texas-Chipmaker Freescale Semiconductor Inc. said it signed a definitive merger agreement to be bought by a private-equity consortium led by The Blackstone Group. The transaction is valued at $17.6 billion.Other members of the consortium include The Carlyle Group, Permira Funds and Texas Pacific...
WASHINGTON--Freescale Semiconductor Inc. confirmed last week it is talking with parties relating to a possible transaction characterized by a New York Times story as a bidding war between two private equity firms to acquire the chipmaker for $16 billion. The Times, citing sources involved...
Look out, Texas Instruments Inc. and Infineon Technologies AG. Your closest competitor in EDGE baseband chips and W-CDMA RF transceivers, respectively-Philips Semiconductor-has a new, ambitious owner anxious to position its acquisition to eat your lunch. Or at least grow Philips Semiconductor by feeding on...
AUSTIN, Texas-StarCore L.L.C. is closing up shop due to a lack of success in licensing its early digital signal processor family of chips. The company had hoped to challenge Texas Instruments Inc.'s leadership position in the DSP market. The shutdown is set for Aug....
AUSTIN, Texas—StarCore L.L.C. is closing up shop due to a lack of success in licensing its early digital signal processor family of chips. The company had hoped to eventually challenge Texas Instruments Inc.’s leadership position in the DSP market. The shutdown is set for...
ROSEMONT, Ill.-Though much pent-up interest was focused on Motorola's handset announcements, company execs talk about operations, supply chain, finances, product roadmap and whether Motorola could sustain its recent robust performance-in sum, both the "vision thing" and the nitty-gritty. CEO Ed Zander strode the stage,...
Nothing kills a party like running out of food and booze. And, when guests show up in droves, beyond expectation, you check your supplies and commandeer friends for a mad dash to the store, right? Especially if each and every guest feels compelled to...
SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. raised its revenue estimates for its third quarter ending in June, indicating it expects revenue at or slightly above earlier forecasts of $1.77 billion to $1.87 billion based on strong demand for its chipsets destined for both low-end and 3G phones....
SAN DIEGO—Qualcomm Inc. raised its revenue estimates for its third quarter ending in June, indicating it expects revenue at or slightly above earlier forecasts of $1.77 billion to $1.87 billion based on strong demand for its chipsets destined for both low-end and 3G phones....
AUSTIN, Texas—Freescale Semiconductor Inc. says strong sales of its wireless products as well as its networking and computing gear helped the company to more than double its first-quarter net income compared to the same period last year. Freescale reported first-quarter net income of $212...
BELLEVUE, Wash.—The Bluetooth Special Interest Group picked the WiMedia Alliance multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing version of ultra-wideband for integration with Bluetooth technology, thus taking the next step in its plan to create a high-speed data rate version of version of Bluetooth capable of...
DENVER-Although monitoring and control-enhancing technology hasn't garnered many headlines in the past, ZigBee-enabled products are likely to burst into prime-time later this year with both consumer and commercial applications, predicted Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance, during last week's IEEE standards meeting in...
Operating system vendor Symbian Ltd. announced it will cut its licensing fees in half in a bid to counter encroaching competition from Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile OS and Linux OS. Symbian currently charges handset makers $5 per phone (for shipments of more than 2...
The IEEE'S recent decision to allow competing ultra-wideband standards in the marketplace has not deterred investors, but could spell trouble for the Bluetooth industry, which last year hooked its future to the UWB standard. The IEEE group voted unanimously at a meeting in Waikoloa,...
AUSTIN, Texas-Freescale Semiconductor Inc. announced it has manufactured 24-megabit silicon nanocrystal memory technology, bringing next-generation non-volatile embedded memories closer to production.The company explained that non-volatile memory technology is denser, faster and more cost-effective than conventional floating gate-based flash memory technology. In addition, Freescale noted...
The W-CDMA race has just started, but chipset vendors from all corners of the industry are driving to play in the nascent but growing market. Already, industry heavyweights Texas Instruments Inc., Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Qualcomm Inc. and others have vaulted into the space. Although...
CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom-Microprocessor company Arm unveiled its newest offering, the Cortex-A8 processor, which the company said will give low-power mobile devices the computing strength of desktop computers. "The rapid convergence of digital entertainment and mobile communications technology requires new levels of system performance and...
