SiliconBeat

How long would Ken Klein (pictured), the chief executive at Wind River Systems, stick around should the Alameda supplier of embedded software become a division of the world’s largest chip maker? No one can say for sure, but two years would seem to be a relatively safe bet. That’s how long Klein needs to remain with the company in order to receive all of a $5 million retention bonus promised him as part of the merger agreement with Intel, which offered to buy Wind River last week for $11.50 a share in a deal it valued at $884 million.

Details of Klein’s hiring agreement were filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission along with Read the rest of this entry »

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.

The blog world is abuzz with rumors that Intel is about to get spanked - and hard - by European authorities, who have been investigating claims the Santa Clara chipmaker engaged in anti-competitive practices.

Some are speculating that the European Union might even fine Intel more than $1 billion.

No one is commenting at Intel or at its chief competitor, Advanced Micro Devices, which long has accused Intel of monoplizing the market for high-powered computer chips. So we’ll have to wait until the Euros issue a public statement on the matter, a development that could occur as early as next week, according to some blogsters.

An investor wants Intel to establish “a comprehensive policy for the human right to water” when the Santa Clara computer-chip maker holds its annual stockholder meeting on May 20.

Northstar Asset Management says Intel used 7.5 billion gallons of water in 2007, largely to clean the silicon wafers used to make its semiconductors, according to a regulatory filing in connection with the meeting.

Having a water-rights policy would reduce the risk of “adverse publicity, consumer boycotts, divestment campaigns and lawsuits” over the company’s use of that natural resource, Northstar claims.

But Intel says such a policy is unnecessary, noting in the filing that it has invested more than $100 million in water conservation at its global facilities and conserved “more than 30 billion gallons over the last decade alone.”

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Santa Clara chip maker Intel has become a corporate sponsor of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, broadcast on PBS.

Intel’s support, which began on April 1, will continue through December 2009. Other sponsors of the show include Chevron, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Besides providing general programming support, Intel will pay for a series of mini-documentaries examining the role of innovation in the economy, but won’t have editorial involvement, according to PBS.

Intel also will work with the NewsHour and the Aspen Institute to create a series of salon dinners in Washington, DC, culminating in an October summit, which will focus on innovation.

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.

Intel grabbed headlines today announcing its first-ever option exchange program that helped balance its implementation of an across-the-board salary freeze. But joining Intel today in announcing a plan to reprice employee stock option plan was NetApp, the Sunnyvale provider of network storage appliances, which is asking its shareholders to vote on a plan to reprice options with exercise prices of $22 or higher.

In its argument in favor of the measure, NetApp’s board said that Read the rest of this entry »

Intel will be the first Silicon Valley company among the vanguard of public companies in the United States that will ask shareholders this year to express their approval or disapproval of the way the company compensates its top executives.

The announcement came via Read the rest of this entry »

Intel said Wednesday it would restructure its manufacturing operations, halting production at five older factories. The company will also close two existing assembly test facilities in Malaysia and the Phillipines.

The chip maker said it expects the restructuring will affect between 5,000 and 6,000 employees, although not all would necessarily lose their jobs as the company siad some would be offered positions at other facilities.

The move comes on top of rumors that Intel may post its first quarterly net loss in 22 years when it releases results in April for its current quarter.