FTC seeks more data on Intel flash spinoff
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U.S. government antitrust regulators have asked Intel Corp. and STMicroelectronics NV to provide more information about theirÂ plan to spin off their flash memory unit into a new company, the vendors said Thursday.
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A Macromedia executive says wireless carriers are demanding specific menus, buttons and functions. Could Flash be the answer?
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Through-silicon vias to boost storage capacities Toshiba has applied the through-silicon via (TSV) technique - chip makers' flavour-of-the-month technology - to boost the capacity of NAND Flash chips with only a "minimal" increase in chip size and no need for a new fabrication node.â¦
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Hit by turmoil in the debt capital markets, STMicroelectronics, Intel, and Francisco Partners agreed on Wednesday to extend the deadline to launch Numonyx, a flash-memory joint venture between the three companies, to March 28.In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Intel said the parties have re-negotiated the commitment letter which originally called for certain lenders to provide up to U1.55 billion to finance Numonyx.Under the revised financing terms, Geneva-based chip maker STMicroelectronics will provide $364 million to the joint venture with a 48.6 percent stake of Numonyx. Francisco Partners will invest $150 million in exchange for a 6.3 percent equity stake, according to STMicroelectronics.Intel will retain a 45.1 percent ownership in the joint venture but hadn&#39;t calculated its financial commitment, according to an Intel spokesman.Numonyx will also receive a $650 million loan and a $100 million revolving credit facility, according to Intel&#39;s filing with the SEC.The updated agreement provides Numonyx a similar level of net cash with lower indebtedness than originally anticipated, ST Microelectronics said in a release.The three companies originally announced the joint venture on May 22 and said the deal would close in the second half of 2007. Numonyx is aimed at supplying NOR and NAND memory for consumer and industrial products including cell phones, digital cameras, PCs and other equipment.After the deal closes, Numonyx will be the largest supplier of NOR flash memory, STMicroelectronics said in the release.
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European Commission is looking into claims that Intel has been pressuring Europe's largest computer chain.
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Intel Corp , the largest maker of computer processors, said on Wednesday it would respond quickly to provide additional information sought by U.S. regulators over its plans to merge its chip unit with STMicroelectronics .
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The European Commission has expanded anÂ ongoing antitrust probeÂ of computer chip maker Intel to examine claims that the company has been pressuring the Continent's largest computer retail chain not to sell computers containing chips made by archrival Advanced Micro DevicesÂ (AMD), Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd confirmed Monday.
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Tuesday&#39;s&#160;raid on Intel&#39;s Munich office&#160;by European Commission investigators marks the latest development in one of several antitrust cases that have dogged the world&#39;s largest chip maker for years. Here&#39;s a rundown of Intel&#39;s brushes with antitrust investigators and lawsuits around the world since 1990:
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SAN JOSE, Calif. - The watch is on at Intel Corp., as observers are now wondering: Who is the heir apparent to Paul Otellini? As reported, Intel (Santa Clara, Calif.
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New York state launched a formal investigation of Intel Corp on Thursday, to determine if the world's No. 1 chipmaker broke state and U.S. antitrust laws to squeeze out its main rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
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Massive capacity iPods coming... but not for a few years yet Toshiba has developed what it believes will be a key component of Flash chips capable of storing 100Gb of data. Unfortunately, you're going to have to wait four more generations of Flash technology to get it.â¦
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Two privacy groups are stepping up the pressure on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), saying the agency has an obligation to consider privacy concerns as it prepares to rule on the antitrust implications of&#160;Google&#39;s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick.The executive directors of&#160;the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) repeated their call for the FTC to impose privacy conditions if it approves the merger. It appears that an FTC decision on the $3.1 billion acquisition is &quot;imminent,&quot; said Jeffrey Chester, CDD&#39;s executive director.FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz in October suggested the FTC&#39;s review of the deal had to be about competition questions, not privacy, but Chester disagreed during a press conference on Tuesday. One of the FTC&#39;s main duties is to protect consumer privacy, and the merger of the number one search provider with the number one ad server raises serious privacy questions, he said.Google&#39;s contention that there are no major privacy concerns is &quot;absurd on the face of it,&quot; Chester said. DoubleClick says it serves 8 billion online ads and processes 964GB of Web server log files each day, he said.&quot;It would be a violation of trust, in effect abuse of their own role, in not addressing an issue of such concern as the data-collection apparatus within the ever-growing behemoth,&quot; Chester said. &quot;If they&#39;re really the agency to protect consumer privacy, they will act to protect privacy. If they fail to act to protect privacy, they have basically put up a flag to American consumers saying, &#39;We surrender your data.&#39;&quot;Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich repeated Google&#39;s position that the merger would have positive effects.&quot;This acquisition is good for consumers, advertisers and Web site publishers, and we continue to be confident that it will be approved,&quot; he said. &quot;I would also point out what the FTC itself has said about privacy not playing a role in its review of the deal.&quot;Last week, the two groups&#160;asked FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras to recuse herself from the decision on the merger, saying her husband works for a law firm that is advising DoubleClick on the deal in the U.S.&#160;Majoras declined Monday to recuse herself, saying that her husband isn&#39;t directly involved in the DoubleClick deal and that the Jones Day law firm is advising the company only before European regulators.An FTC spokesman wasn&#39;t immediately available for comment.Chester and EPIC executive director Marc Rotenberg repeated their calls for Majoras to recuse herself. Jones Day&#39;s Web site, until recently, said it was advising DoubleClick on the deal in the U.S. as well as Europe, they said.But the most important step the FTC can take is to impose privacy conditions on the merger, Rotenberg said. The case for a privacy review &quot;is very clear,&quot; he said.Chester agreed. &quot;Are they concerned about Americans&#39; privacy, or are they going to give Google a pass?&quot; he said.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigatingÂ Google's proposed $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick, according to news reports Tuesday. The investigation began at the end of last week as a result of concerns over privacy issues and the potential for anti-competitive practices, the New York Times reported, quoting anonymous sources. The two companies announced the all-cash agreement last month, with both Google and Microsoft pursuing the online advertising company, as the competition between the two for a greater share of the online ad market increases. Privacy groups, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD),Â filed a complaint with the FTCÂ on April 20, asking that the government agency block the merger unless Google will ensure users' privacy, including deleting information that could identify an individual user once that user ends his or her session with a Google site. Antitrust issues are likely to be of greater concern than privacy ones, with regulators more concerned about the merger's effect on other online ad players and their ability to compete against the new combined entity, the report said. Â
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The US Department of Justice looks into competitive practices among flash memory chipmakers.
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Intel Corp. plans to respond quickly to a U.S. Federal Trade Commission request for specifics on a plan to merge its flash memory chip business with that of Switzerland's STMicroelectronics NV.
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ANALYST NATHAN BROOKWOOD has raised several questions about a technology announcement Intel made last week on Pentium 4 dual core processors and wonders just what technology was under the hood.
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com. In a signal from the European Commission that it is stepping up its investigation into possible illegal business practices by Intel, the commission is asking four European countries why they