Electronic Business articles from February 2002

Electronic Business archives from February 2002

Corporate governance is supposed to be independent. (Editor's Note).
February 1, 2002... Rarely have we seen a struggle between a board member and a CEO like the one currently playing out between Carly Fiorina, CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co., and Walter Hewlett, board member and son of one of the company's two cofounders. Now this...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2002... LAYOFFS LEAVE A SOUR TASTE I enjoyed your editorial ["Layoffs have become a nasty business," Editor's Note, January 2002, page 6], especially your comments regarding "professionalism." My last employer, Tyco Electronics--AMP, called me on...

Are we having fun yet? (The Chip Advisor).
February 1, 2002... It's too early to celebrate, but some forecasters say the electronics industry may be pulling out of its slump. The Christmas buying season wasn't as big as we had hoped, but it wasn't as bad as we had feared, either. Some markets did very well...

News flash: Solving storage madness. (Commentary).
February 1, 2002... Like most of us, I'm sure you have enough rolls of film, cassette tapes, VHS tapes, CDs and DVDs lying around to fill an entire closet. Flash memory is an alternative to this storage madness. With the advent of digital cameras, flash...

Recession began last spring, but may now be almost over. (Analysis).
February 1, 2002... America's longest-ever period of economic prosperity ended during March of 2001. That became "official" in late November of last year, following a long period of deliberation by the official arbiters of business cycle dating, the National...

Is help on the way?: Report urges improvements to Reg. FD. (Finance).
February 1, 2002... Portions of Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg. FD) have confounded public companies and market analysts since it took effect in October 2000. The problem isn't so much the spirit of the rule, which forbids the disclosure of selected "material"...

Venture capital returns hit the skids: ROI hits first negative numbers in a decade. (Finance).
February 1, 2002... There was a time when a venture investment in a tech company was, if not a sure bet, certainly a reasonable wager. Some returns were quick and high. But now, this once high-flying opportunity compares unfavorably with the biotech and medical...

Guarded optimism for Q1 '02. (Business Barometer).(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... This month's polling of purchasing managers shows many are looking for some improvement in business conditions in the next 60 days. While most analysts are not expecting a turnaround in the economy any time soon, many companies believe that the...

I will survive: IP exchanges vow to bounceback. (Business Trends).
February 1, 2002... Just 18 months ago, there was a loud buzz every where that IP-intellectual property ranging from system-on-a-chip designs to virtual components-was poised to trade briskly and conveniently over the Internet. A dozen or so exchanges had sprouted...

How bad was it? (Business Trends).
February 1, 2002... The New Year has been rung in, but the hangover from the 2001 business climate won't be easy to shake. In a preliminary look at semiconductor market statistics, El Segundo, CA-based market researcher iSuppli Corp. reports that last year's...

Partly fabless: AMI bids for 'hybrid' ASIC business. (Business Trends).
February 1, 2002... AMI Semiconductor Inc. opened a new chip fabrication plant about three years ago, but when company officials recently were deciding whether to upgrade it from 0.35-micron to 0.18-micron semiconductor technology, the costs were daunting....

Synopsys rolls the dice: Avant! acquisition risky, but potentially very powerful. (Business Trends).
February 1, 2002... The bold proposal by Synopsys Inc. to acquire beleaguered Avant! Corp. faces several risks, but if successful could make Synopsys a formidable challenger to Cadence Design Systems Inc. The combination would make Mountain View, CA-based...

Leavin' on a (private) jet plane: Noncommercial aircraft can make business travel more cost effective. (Business Trends).
February 1, 2002... Faced with decidedly unfriendly skies--and even unfriendlier baggage and security checks--corporate executives increasingly are boarding private jets for their business travel. In an environment of slashed travel budgets [ELECTRONIC...

What we have here is a failure to communicate: Executives and IT talk different languages, costing companies money. (Business Trends: Management).
February 1, 2002... I called Gartner Inc. with a simple request: I wanted to talk to an information technology (IT) analyst about why so many technical people can't seem to speak in plain English. The pleasant-sounding receptionist seemed to understand, but then...

War on terrorism Sparks renewed defense spending: Focus on electronics upgrades, unmanned aircraft, intelligence-gathering and night vision.
February 1, 2002... With the U.S. embarked on a war of uncertain length against scattered and hidden foes in countries as yet unknown, this much at least is certain: The long decline in defense spending that began even before the collapse of the Soviet Union has...

Managing a mega-project: With a development team of 7,000 a supplier base of 1,500 and a customer base of all three arms of the U.S. military plus six foreign countries, the Joint Strike Fighter program is a massive undertaking. (Defense Electronics).
February 1, 2002... Having won what figures to be the largest defense contract in history, Tom Burbage is both elated and edgy. Elated that Lockheed Martin Corp. has been chosen to build the next generation fighter plane for the U.S. military--a contract that...

At long last MEMS: After years of hype and disappointment, a market finally is developing for the microscopic-sized machines. (Emerging Technology).(micro-electromechanical systems)
February 1, 2002... MIKE JAMIOLKOWSKI decided he'd spotted the next big thing at a 1994 conference on the promising new field of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). The technology--which uses semiconductor-related tools and processes to fabricate tiny...

Shall we dance: Ed Breen likes to boogie while Chris Galvin wants to waltz. Can they find the right step to save ailing Motorola? (Profile).
February 1, 2002... What happens when a lightning-quick Force meets a slow-moving object? Welcome to the boardroom two-step between Motorola's new president and chief operating officer, Edward Breen Jr., and Chairman and CEO Christopher Galvin. As the men take the...

Solving the personnel puzzle: Finding the right number of employees is only part of the staffing picture--the pieces also need to fit together. (Staffing Strategies).
February 1, 2002... The personnel puzzle seems painfully plain: Have too many pieces, and your company could be on a fast track to economic ruin. Have too few, and you'll end up with a big hole in your customer-satisfaction picture. Even worse, when the economy...

Preparing for the recovery. (Commentary).
February 1, 2002... It's no secret what the recession has done to high-tech growth--telecom in particular--and at this point, the coming turnaround remains little more than a rumor. As a result, growth plans at major telecom carriers are being cut back, and many...