Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[mlsoft]

Zeev...

Just as you mentioned STM as a competitor for ZRAN and ESST, they are moving into a number of areas, and they are very tough competition. STM is merciless on suppliers which helps keep their costs low and they always plan on doing large volume business in any area they move in to. STM has a history of moving in with what I would call predatory pricing, selling below cost to nab a large percentage of the total market. I remember saying earlier (#msg-427216) on this board that they were moving into the DVD chipset area and would cause trouble.

They are doing the same thing in the power chip arena, and looking into video chips, from what I hear. They try to identify high profit niche areas where a few smaller companies are doing well, and move in with an eye to be the dominant player. Because of their size, they can sell chips (with a decent profit) for less than the much smaller competitor's cost to produce them with a small sacrifice in high end technology. They will end up dominating a number of areas by the time this slowdown is over.

mlsoft