Month: June 2003

Ripe for acquisition

The Register says Atheros is shipping its third gen WiFi chips: WLAN chip maker Atheros today became the first to market with 802.11g product based on the final draft – version 8.2 – of the standard when it announced it has begun shipping its third-generation, AR5002 family of client and base-station Wi-Fi silicon. The AR5002 … Continue reading “Ripe for acquisition”

The Register says Atheros is shipping its third gen WiFi chips:

WLAN chip maker Atheros today became the first to market with 802.11g product based on the final draft – version 8.2 – of the standard when it announced it has begun shipping its third-generation, AR5002 family of client and base-station Wi-Fi silicon.

The AR5002 line provides dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless networking based on 802.11b, g and a, through two-chip solutions (a MAC/baseband part plus a radio chip).

Maybe we should start a pool on who buys them – Intersil, Broadcom, Intel, or TI?

More at Unstrung:

“We’re not a small startup anymore,” says Li. “We hit cash-flow positive sometime ago.” He just shook his head when Unstrung asked about the possibility of his company being acquired. Instead, the company is still talking about an IPO when market conditions are right.

FCC Rules

After watching the FCC ownership rules hearing on C-Span, and listening to as much of the commentary by folks like KKK alumni Fritz Hollings and Trent Lott as I could stand, I came away with the belief that the uproar over these rule changes is groundless. Lawrence Lessig said: “The FCC will liberate the networks … Continue reading “FCC Rules”

After watching the FCC ownership rules hearing on C-Span, and listening to as much of the commentary by folks like KKK alumni Fritz Hollings and Trent Lott as I could stand, I came away with the belief that the uproar over these rule changes is groundless.

Lawrence Lessig said: “The FCC will liberate the networks to consolidate because the FCC feels pressured by the courts” and some other stuff, but the rules expressly forbid mergers or takeovers between the Big Four TV networks, so that’s clearly hooey. The big changes were easing of the limit on local stations a network can own (which brought existing ownership into compliance) and relaxation of the rule prohibiting newspapers, TV, and radio from being owned by the same company in the same market. ClearChannel doesn’t gain by the rules, and may have to shed some stations.

So if the opposition to these rules isn’t rational – and at least some of it isn’t (Susie “Medea” Benjamin, trust fund activist, got herself arrested again at the hearing), then what’s it based on? A lot of folks were comfortable with the way things were in America when TV news came from the three networks plus CNN, the same stories with the same liberal/centrist spin. Then along came Rupert Murdoch and we got the Fox News Channel, the New York Post, and the Fox Network, and the traditional liberal agenda got some competition. Fox isn’t always, or perhaps even often right, but it is a counterbalance and a different point of view.

The opponents of the rule change are scared that people like Murdoch will alter the media landscape at the level of local print news and broadcast news, an area still controlled by the liberal oligarchy. I hope they’re right, because I’d like to have a TV channel or a daily paper in the Frisco Bay Area with a centrist or right-wing orientation, and it certainly appears that we’d never get one under the old rules.

I don’t believe for a minute that opponents to these ownership rules from the left care about diversity of opinion, which is sure to be enhanced by allowing Murdoch to buy more media properties in more markets. More power to him.

The Bubble that Wasn’t

A recent comment of mine that WiFi chipsets aren’t a good bet for investors raised a few eyebrows, but facts are facts. See The Register for the lowdown on current pricing trends for WiFi chips: The price war is being driven by the entry of new chip makers, primarily in Taiwan. Acer Labs and SiS … Continue reading “The Bubble that Wasn’t”

A recent comment of mine that WiFi chipsets aren’t a good bet for investors raised a few eyebrows, but facts are facts. See The Register for the lowdown on current pricing trends for WiFi chips:

The price war is being driven by the entry of new chip makers, primarily in Taiwan. Acer Labs and SiS have begun sampling 802.11b chipsets, while VIA’s networking chip subsidiary will put its own product into mass production in July. Almost all of the newcomers are looking to compete on price. The established players are being forced to do the same.

The need to maintain sales once faster, compatible and at last genuinely standard 802.11g parts come on stream is likely to keep prices down. TechKnowledge reckons 802.11g chips will hit an average $9.68 by the end of the year, just over half the $18 they commanded last year.

Countering the price decline is the fact that many 802.11b chipset vendors buy third-party radio transceivers to connect to their own MAC chips – the parts that handle the network protocols. A limited number of RF chip makers is keeping prices more stable, but again, a number of Taiwanese vendors are believed to be getting reading to enter that market and will drive down the price of RF chips and thus the cost of 802.11b chipsets as a whole.

You generally find opportunity to innovate in the production of IEEE standards only at the system interface and on the analog side, and sometimes with power management, but even those areas are effectively overmined.

Blackout continues

The news blackout of new FCC media ownership news continues apace. The only live coverage of the hearing itself will be on C-SPAN, starting at 9:30 AM EDT, and only available to people with access to cable TV, satellite TV, or the Internet. Obviously, the evil VRWC doesn’t want you to know what’s going on, … Continue reading “Blackout continues”

The news blackout of new FCC media ownership news continues apace. The only live coverage of the hearing itself will be on C-SPAN, starting at 9:30 AM EDT, and only available to people with access to cable TV, satellite TV, or the Internet. Obviously, the evil VRWC doesn’t want you to know what’s going on, right?

UPDATE: Howie Kurtz discussed the pending rule change today on his “Reliable Sources” show on CNN; he clearly didn’t get the memo. Shhh…..Howie, this is supposed to be a secret.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Lou Josephs blogged it live. Local radio ownership rules were actually tightened, much to the dismay of Clear Channel, and newspapers were allowed easier access to TV and radio stations. I don’t see why this was a big deal.