Emulex dissed and dismissed an unsolicited bid from Broadcom this morning saying it “significantly undervalues Emulex” and is not in the best interests of shareholders. In a blistering letter appended to the rejection announcement, Emulex CEO Paul Folino described Broadcom’s unsolicited $9.25-a-share cash takeover offer as “an opportunistic attempt to take advantage of Emulex’s depressed stock price” in a souring economy.
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As we head into the summer iPhone refresh cycle, the Mac rumor sites are fast pulling together a wire-and-string outline of what the device might look like. Last week brought with it reports that iPhone ’09, or whatever it might be called, will sport a 3.2 megapixel camera. Now comes news that it may support 802.11n wireless connectivity and video editing as well.
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If life is a cement trampoline, then Fairchild Semiconductor just performed a flat back landing. It’s hand forced by those oft-cited “market conditions,” the company said Friday it is sacking 12 percent of its workforce in an attempt to reduce expenses and spread holiday cheer.
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For a while there, it looked like Advanced Micro Devices was really going to take Intel to the mat, didn’t it? But not lately. After seven consecutive quarterly losses, AMD shares fell to a six-year low last month, down 50 percent in the past year. Good thing, then, that the company has chosen to sell off its digital television business, which these days is more of a distraction than anything else.
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According to Forbes, former Broadcom Corp. chief and founder Henry Nicholas ranks 677th on the list of the world’s wealthiest individuals. But according to a federal indictment unsealed today, he’d rank quite a bit higher on a list of the world’s most debauched.
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Bet that $6-per-handset settlement Broadcom offered Qualcomm back in June is looking pretty good to the chip-maker right now. Yesterday, the Bush administration let stand the International Trade Commission ban on the import of devices using Qualcomm chips found to infringe on Broadcom patents.
“After extensive review, DHS [Department of Homeland Security] has [...]
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Multiple choice question: Catapulted into the rarefied heights of extreme tech wealth by Broadcom’s 1998 IPO, the company’s wildly energetic, and overbearing, CEO Henry T. Nicholas III purchased: a private jet; a Lamborghini Diablo roadster; a Laguna Hills, Calif., estate; or an underground sex lair beneath that estate. According to Nicholas’s former personal assistant and bodyguard, Kenji Kato, the answer to that question is “all of the above.”
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