Intel

Intel derived its name from Integrated Electronics Corporation which was incorporated on July 18, 1968, by semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore.

The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and enjoys being the world’s largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue.

Intel is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors which is the brainchild for most of the personal computers and forms an integral part to for the PC. Intel also makes motherboard chipsets, network interface controllers and integrated circuits, flash memory, graphic chips, embedded processors and other devices related to communications and computing.

Intel was ranked 48 in the 2010 rankings of the world’s 100 most powerful brands published by Millward Brown Optimor.

Market Share

According to the latest stats from iSuppli, both x86 and x64 microprocessors as a group continue to take market share away from vendors peddling RISC, Itanium, and CISC processors in the general-purpose microprocessor market for PCs. Intel got 82.6 per cent of the revenue pie in the first quarter of 2011, a two point gain over the prior year. Intel continues to enjoy a strong lead in mobile PC chips which are used in the laptops. The company enjoys a whooping market share of 84.4 percent. Intel also maintains its dominance in server processors, finishing the first quarter with a 94.5-percent market share.

Latest Acquisitions

If we talk about the Mergers and Acquisitions, we find Intel to be one of the strong players in this field of corporate strategy. M&A has always been one of the core strengths of Intel Corporation and the company is expanding its business focus despite being the fact that traditionally Intel has been the world leader in the microprocessor segment of the Semiconductor Industry.

One could categorize Intel today as being the major company in the PC component business while recognizing that it is also in other segments of the industry.

In 2010, Intel announced two major acquisitions:

• On August 19, Intel announced that it planned to purchase McAfee, a manufacturer of computer security technology, priced at $7.68 billion. Following the closure of the McAfee deal, Intel’s workforce totals approximately 90,000, including 12,000 software engineers. Intel won the European Union regulatory approval for its acquisition of McAfee on January 26, 2011.
• The company also announced the acquisition of Infineon Technologies’ Wireless Solutions business. With the Infineon transaction, Intel plans is to use the company’s technology in laptops, smart phones, netbooks, tablets, and embedded computers in consumer products, eventually integrating its wireless modem into Intel’s silicon chips.
• In March 2011, Intel bought most of the assets of Cairo-based SySDSoft.
• In July 2011, Intel announced that it has agreed to acquire Fulcrum Microsystems Inc., a company specializing in network switches. Fulcrum was previously included on EE Times list of 60 Emerging Startups.

Intel Capital which is the investment arm of Intel Corp, has invested $22 million in three Chinese technology companies:

• A digital security and surveillance company,
• A smart-TV company and
• A company which runs the fashion and lifestyle e-commerce website.

The Future

With the technology developments taking place a rapid rate we see that Intel is currently aiming at shaping the future of cloud computing which is one of the most advanced technologies of the current generation. Also Intel is targeting on how increasing numbers of everyday devices will add computing capabilities. Having these two developments in mind, Intel Labs recently announced two new Intel Science and Technology Centers (ISTC) hosted at Carnegie Mellon University focused on cloud and embedded computing research. The company has also invested $30M and plans to invest a whopping $100M in research and innovation in the coming years. Thus it can be very well seen that the company has a bright future and will play a leading role in shaping the technological environment.