Electronic Business articles from February 2003

Electronic Business archives from February 2003

A healthy dividend. (Editor's Note).
February 1, 2003... Sharing the wealth with employees, via stock options, has long been a foundation of tech-company values. The idea is to make every employee, from the CEO to the janitor a partner in the success of the business. Now electronics companies should...

Lower-cost patent challenge now more effective. (On the Law).
February 1, 2003... For many years, there was an alternative--petitioning the PTO to re-examine the patent in light of a prior patent or publication. Challenging a patent issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) hasn't been cheap. A recent...

The high cost of doing business: Directors and officers liability insurance premiums skyrocket. (Finance).(Industry Overview)
February 1, 2003... This year, executives are finding one of the necessary evils of doing business more necessary--and more evil--than ever before. Premiums for directors and officers liability (D&O) insurance are going sky high, executives say. "Companies in...

The SEC guide to Reg. FD: How companies can avoid crossing the line. (Business Trends).
February 1, 2003... Late last year, the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission offered a playbook for companies on how to best adhere to Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg. FD), the rule approved in late 2000 to prevent selective disclosure of material, nonpublic...

VoP chip market on the rebound. (Business Trends).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... With a sharp decline in capital expenditures by customers of voice aver packet (VoP) equipment, VoP chipsets stumbled hard in 2002. Both overall port shipments and average selling prices (ASPs) steeply declined, causing a deep drop in expected...

Patent frenzy: Process and people give IBM patent leadership for 10 years. (Business Trends).
February 1, 2003... When the U.S. Patent arid Trademark Office closed the book on 2002, the ending was familiar: For the tenth straight year, Armonk, NY-based IBM Corp. received more patents than any other company. Big Blue was granted 3,288 patents in 2002....

Flash drives arrive: Watch out floppy disks--USB flash drives are catching on. (Business Trends).
February 1, 2003... While technology companies searched desperately last year for the "next big thing" to revive industry growth, a promising new data-storage product was ringing up strong sales despite virtually no advertising or promotion. Sales of...

Relying on others: The new industry model, mostly driven by economics and time-to-market issues, has semiconductor companies turning to others for product design, testing and packaging. (Special Editorial Section: Leadership Series).(Industry Overview)
February 1, 2003... No one who worked at Conexant Systems Inc. three years ago would recognize it now. At that time, the Newport Beach, CA-based company was a semiconductor conglomerate that kept tight control on the design and manufacturing elements of its many...

Fewer chips in the channel, but still too many. (Business Trends).(Industry Overview)
February 1, 2003... In inventory terms, at least, the electronics industry closed 2002 in better shape than it started. By the third quarter of last year, the industry's supply chain was carrying $1.6 billion in excess chip inventory: 73% less stock than it...

Bonus pay: Despite poor corporate financial results, bonuses went up in 2002. (Business Trends: Management).(Industry Overview)
February 1, 2003... Despite the continued weak economy, and public outrage over executive compensation, many CEOs are expected to get cash bonuses for 2002. In a recent survey of 852 companies by Compensation Resources Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 43% of the...

Fabless goes Global: Once mainly a U.S. phenomenon, fabless chip companies are sprouting up around the world.(Industry Overview)(Cover Story)
February 1, 2003... In just five years, PC chip maker VIA Technologies Inc.'s revenues have climbed from less than $50 million to more than $1 billion in sales. Acquisitions and an aggressive product strategy helped fuel the growth. But another big factor in the...

Politically correct chairman Powell: FCC Chairman Michael Powell understands high tech, but so far he's all talk and little action.
February 1, 2003... Like any good politician, Michael Powell talks a good game. One would hardly expect less, given his lineage as the son of Secretary of State Colin Powell. And some might even say that Michael, who has been chairman of the Federal Communications...

Mira-cle: A versatile reference design enables OEMs to enter a new market. (Special Advertising Section).(Industry Overview)
February 1, 2003... Thomas Edison's famous aphorism about innovation--10 percent inspiration, 90 percent perspiration--needs to be revised for the electronics industry. To introduce a new consumer electronics device during a weak economy into a market that will be...

Look ma, no hands! Telematics vendors focus on hands-free phone and PDA use, so road warriors can be productive, safely. (Automotive Electronics).
February 1, 2003... Bob Schumacher has become pretty adept at juggling. On his tri-monthly visits from Kokomo, IN, to company headquarters in Detroit, the Delphi-Automotive Group executive typically puts the four-and-a-half-hour drive to good use. Keeping one...

The peril $ of pay. (HR Strategies).(stock options)(Industry Overview)
February 1, 2003... Signing bonuses are gone. So are excessive relocation packages. On-site massages, valets, gourmet cuisine and free run of the work place for pets have all gone the way of 8-bit desktop computing. At least one Silicon Valley law firm has even...

Are you making sales or creating customers? (Commentary).
February 1, 2003... In a down economy, it's easy to blame the "market" for sales shortfalls. While that may be a contributing factor in some high-tech sectors, it is a cop-out for most companies. Assuming you have a product or service for which there's actually a...