Electronic Business articles from September 2001

Electronic Business archives from September 2001

When times get tough, the not-so-tough go to Washington.(Column)
September 1, 2001... Tam Harbert High tech, which so far has managed to steer fairly clear of pork-barrel politics, is beginning to wake up and smell the bacon. Heavy hitters like IBM Corp.'s Lou Gerstner, Intel Corp.'s Andy Grove and Cisco Systems Inc.'s...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2001... AVANT!'S HUBRIS I just finished reading your [column] about Avant! Corp. ("Crime does indeed pay," Editor's Note, July 2001, page 6). The letter really hit on something for me. I am a regular customer at a Fremont sushi house and have been...

UPDATE: AVANT! FINED; EXECUTIVES SENTENCED.
September 1, 2001... On July 19, 2001, EDA software maker Avant! Corp., Fremont, CA, was ordered by the Santa Clara County Superior Court to pay restitution for trade secrets theft to Cadence Design Systems Inc., San Jose, CA, in the amount of $182 million, plus...

UPDATE: INTERNET SECURITIES FRAUD.
September 1, 2001... Two cases of Internet fraud reported in ELECTRONIC BUSINESS' November 2000 issue (page 37) were resolved over the summer. Twenty-three-year-old Mark Jakob, who pleaded guilty to wire and securities fraud for issuing a phony press release in...

Disturbing the 'microprocessor ecology'.
September 1, 2001... In the real world, there are millions of distinct ecological niches and millions of species of plants and animals to exploit them. Most niches are small, and are filled by small creatures. There are only a few ecological niches that allow large...

Intermediate patent-suit step: expensive, but worth it?
September 1, 2001... Both sides claimed victory recently when the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a decision in the patent infringement lawsuit filed by ARM Holdings Plc. against picoTurbo Inc. concerning RISC microprocessor...

Consumers still aren't ready to buy.
September 1, 2001... The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) improved for the second consecutive month in June, posting a 1.6% increase following declines over most of the past year. But since actual buying plans weakened between May and June, the...

Adding insult to injury.
September 1, 2001... Battered stocks also risk eviction from the market You're a high-tech company that's been watching your stock get beat up on the Nasdaq for some time. Then comes a second blow: The stock has traded under $1 per share for more than 30 days...

Hedging the future of DRAM.
September 1, 2001... Can chips be traded like pork bellies? Is the chip world ready for a futures market? Enron Corp. believes it is. The Houston-based energy trading and distribution company is working with several DRAM suppliers and users to set up a...

An industry holds its breath.
September 1, 2001... The hush you hear in the electronics industry is everyone holding their collective breath hoping that the fourth quarter will show some signs of relief. Currently most companies are expecting no change for the next 60 days. Some may be in...

The paper chase.
September 1, 2001... Out-of-work H1B holders hope they're not out of luck Laid-off H1B visa holders spent their summer waiting for some official word from the U.S. government on how long they can legally stay in this country. The U.S. Immigration and...

In-flight Internet ready for takeoff.(Tenzing Communications and Boeing's Connexion business unit)
September 1, 2001... Two vendors push differing strategies, but will users pay? You can run, but you can no longer hide from your e-mail now that airlines are starting to offer in-flight Internet services. Available on only a handful of flights so far, airborne...

Rattling the chain.
September 1, 2001... 3PLs offer supply-chain logistics alternatives Supply relationships in the electronics industry have become so complex, many execs are referring to the supply chain as the "supply web." Can the use of third-parry logistics providers (3PLs)...

Sign on the dotted line.
September 1, 2001... Use of formal noncompete agreements on the rise Technology companies are willing to go a long way to protect their intellectual property rights. That message was sent loud and clear when Avant! Corp., Fremont, CA, and seven of its...

Risky business.
September 1, 2001... Without safeguards, electronic documents can hurt in court Electronic documents have many positive aspects, but they also are a potential liability if a company winds up in court for any reason. (In the electronics industry, who doesn't end...

A HANDS - ON BUSINESS.
September 1, 2001... Keith Thompson frowns at the sparkling Mercedes SUV in the parking lot at Handspring Inc., Mountain View, CA. The vehicle looks like it has never left the showroom. But Thompson, who details cars with the repose of a Zen master, is not...

CONTRACT MANUFACTURING GROWS UP.
September 1, 2001... Tough times call for more muscle from contract manufacturers BY EVERY MEASURE, it has been a brutal year for contract manufacturers. Billions of dollars of value have been wiped out, more than 40,000 employees have lost their jobs and...

SHEDDING THE TRENCH COAT.
September 1, 2001... Despite a cloak-and-dagger image, 'competitive intelligence' operations are winning rave reviews at many technology companies When Motorola Inc. won $146 million worth of mobile telecom contracts in China last year it was due, in no small....

BUYER BEWARE.(embedded Linux)
September 1, 2001... Embedded Linux has a huge upside, but don't ignore the risks In the electronics industry, risk and reward are as prevalent and inseparable as zeroes and ones. But while many tout the rewards of using open source Linux as an operating system...

WILD WEIRD WORLD OF CHIPS.(Column)
September 1, 2001... "Gentlemen, we have the technology." Bionic Man and more may not be far away I'VE SEEN THE FUTURE, and it's Big Mouth Billy Bass, the talking fish. Inside that wall "art" is more processing power than I had in my old AppleIIc. Billy...

When Alpha is Omega.
September 1, 2001... Compaq Computer Corp., Houston, drove another nail into the coffin of Digital Equipment Corp. when it announced it will use the Itanium microprocessor from Intel Corp., Santa Clara, CA, in all of its servers. The move spells the eventual...