The valley’s base of public companies is set to shrink a bit more with the news today that Exar of Fremont, a maker of silicon electronic connection devices, has agreed to buy Hifn, the Los Gatos supplier of chips used to secure and compress data over networks and on storage systems.
Exar will give Hifn shareholders a chance to choose between Read the rest of this entry »
Two days before defaulting on $266 million worth of debt obligations, chip-maker Spansion agreed to give its newly hired chief executive, John Kispert, a four-month advance on his $900,000 annual salary, an advance he won’t have to pay back should he quit before four months have elapsed.
He was also guaranteed a $1.75 million bonus contingent upon Read the rest of this entry »
Brian Halla, National Semiconductor’s chief exec since 1996, sees energy efficiency as a promising growth market for his computer-chip company.
So Halla, who’d been tooling around town in a Jeep Wrangler and a Hummer, recently decided to buy an all-electric Tesla Roadster, a vehicle that carries a $109,000 pricetag. And he dropped by the Mercury News to show it off the other day.
How’s it to drive?
“It’s awesome,” Halla declared. “It is unbelievable. You sit at an intersection three abreast. And you’re literally at the next light before the other two cars have crossed the intersection.”
But the tiny car is a bit of a tight fit for a big fella like Halla, he noted. And driving something that fast (he said it can hit 60 miles per hour in just under four seconds) is somewhat unnerving.
“I have nightmares. I’m not qualified to drive the thing,” he said. “I just need to figure out how to get in and out of it. Then I’m going to be a happy camper. And how to drive it safely.”
Intel said that it is uncertain whether or not it will be able to report a profit for its current quarter, according to a memo its chief executive, Paul Otellini, sent to the chip makers employees last week, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News Read the rest of this entry »
First the good news: Global sales of semiconductors are expected to grow each year through2011, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. That’s as it should be, in a perfect world, where this year should always be better than last. Read the rest of this entry »
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