SiliconBeat

As we just reported here, Intel’s latest corporate responsibility report doesn’t mention the $1.45 billion fine the European Commission imposed upon the company last week. And analysts covering the company apparently don’t seem too interested in mentioning it in their reports, either.

In the week since the fine was issued, none of the Intel analysts whose notes  we regularly monitor had a word about the fine or its implications for the Santa Clara computer chip giant.

That may seem curious, especially since Intel just hosted a two-day informational session for the analysts, beginning on the day the fine was announced. However, analysts we’ve interviewed about the fine see it as having little immediate impact on Intel.

After all, the company has nearly $8 billion in cash and short-term investments. Moreover, it will be appealing the ruling and the matter could drag on in the European courts for another couple of years.

Santa Clara chip-maker Intel today unveiled its annual “corporate responsibility report” today, an 108-page compendium that CEO Paul Otellini says in the forward shows “our commitment to corporate responsibility is unwavering.”

Among other highlights, the report notes that Intel has committed $120 million to improve math and science education over the next decade, while also investing more than $23 million in energy efficiency and conservation projects since 2001. It also says its employees volunteered more than 1.3 million hours to various causes around the world in 2008.

Nowhere does it say anything about the $1.45 billion fine the European Commission slapped it with last week for allegedly engaging in anti-competitive practices.

However, the report does contain a paragraph on “antitrust issues,” which says the company  “is engaged in a series of private litigations and regulatory investigations prompted by complaints from its primary competitor.”

While not mentioning the name of the competitor - Advanced Micro Devices of Sunnyvale - the report notes that “our conduct has always been lawful, pro-competitive and beneficial to consumers.”

Intel plans to appeal the fine.

Amid the flurry of tech company earnings reports recently, the financial update provided by chip-maker Linear Technology of Milpitas got a bit overlooked this week. So we at SiliconBeat felt obligated to give you the highlights.

The company posted a profit of $54.5 million for its third fiscal quarter, which ended March 29. That was a 45 percent decrease from the same period a year ago.Its revenue was $200.9 million, off 33 percent from a year ago.

Analysts offered a mixed picture about the company’s prospects going forward.

J. P. Morgan analyst Christopher Danely took issue with Linear’s reluctance to reduce its chip inventory, declaring in a note to his clients, “we do not share Linear’s optimism” that sales will bounce back soon.

But in a note of his own, GC Research analyst David Wu said Linear’s management so far “has proved the skeptics wrong and we would give them the benefit of the doubt, at least over the next two to three years.”

You know things have gotten bad when a company’s stockholders have to bring their own bag lunch to an annual shareholders’ meeting.

Consider Santa Clara-based Intel, the world’s biggest chip maker, which has seen its profit shrink during the recession.

In a note to its investors, which also was filed today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Intel said it was taking several steps to save money at its annual meeting on May 20.

Instead of holding the gathering at a rented locale, the company said it would host the affair at one of it’s own buildings. It also announced it was limiting  distribution of printed documents for the affair. Oh, and there’s one more thing.

“In addition, unlike prior years, there will be no food service at the meeting,” Intel added.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the integrated circuit, the National Inventors Hall of Fame will honor 16 people who helped pioneer computer-chip technology during a ceremony Saturday, May 2 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

Andy Grove, who formerly served as Santa Clara chip-maker Intel’s chief executive and chairman, will be given a lifetime achievement award. In addition, 15 other chip innovators will be recognized for their contributions to the industry.

But you wouldn’t want us to spoil the surprise by telling you who they all are and what they did, would you? Of course not. So if you’re curious, go here.

While Sunnyvale computer-chipmaker Spansion this week stirred outrage by firing 3,000 workers and then boosting some executives’ pay, Cypress Semiconductor responded to the economic slowdown a little differently.

The San Jose-based Cypress cut its top executives’  2009 salaries along with that of its other employees,.according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That included trimming the pay of Chief Executive T. J. Rodgers.

Rodgers and his top managers will have their base salaries slashed on a sliding scale ranging from 9 percent to 11 percent. Plus, they won’t get an annual bonus for 2008 and will forfeit the fourth-quarter bonus the company typically hands out when times are good.

Cypress spokesman Joseph McCarthy wouldn’t disclose the size of the pay cut for the company’s rank and file, but said it was less than for the top honchos.

“It’s a democratic salary cut,” McCarthy noted. “This is tough on all of us.”

Three years ago, Cadence Design Systems broke ground on the first structure to be built under the so-called North San Jose Vision 2030 Plan, which envisions 26.7 million square feet of new development on the city’s north side.

Now the five-story, 208,000 square-foot R & D building has been completed on the company’s campus at 2655 Seely Avenue. And executives at Cadence - whose products helps other companies make computer chips - are talking it up big time.

Designed to house employees previously located at four nearby buildings, the new building already is “resulting in many productive brainstorming sessions that spark innovation,” Cadence declared in a prepared statement.

That’s a good thing, because Cadence - like a lot of companies in the semiconductor industry these days - could use a little innovating, particularly on the financial front. It’s just reported fourth-quarter earnings weren’t pretty. It lost $1.64 billion. During the same period a year ago, it earned $120 million.

It’s Cadence Design Systems, the San Jose-based company, whose software and hardware helps other companies make computer chips. It just broke ground for a new five-story, 208,000 square foot research and development center on its campus