Posted 10/28/09 at 08:09:47 AM by Paul Lilly

According to an anonymous source, Hector Ruiz, 63-year-old former chief executive officer of AMD, is the unnamed "AMD executive" government prosecutors allege provided information to a defendant in the Galleon insider trading case, Bloomberg reports..

Ruiz, who  stepped down as AMD's CEO last year and now serves as chairman of chip spinoff Globalfoundries, hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing in the case, nor do prosecutors say he profited from insider trading. But he is accused of discussing with Danielle Chiesi, who is alleged to be part of the Balleon insider trading ring, timing of the chip factory's spinoff in September 2008, ahead of the announcement of the deal.

"You know, we're gonna shock the hell out of everybody," the AMD executive told Chiesi, according a transcript of the September conversation included in court documents.

If the anonymous source turns out to be correct, Ruiz would be the highest ranking executive involved in the case. Other defendants in the case include IBM executive Robert Moffat and Rajiv Goel, who helped direct investments at Intel.

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Posted 10/07/09 at 12:30:00 PM by Will Smith

From the first time we saw Borderlands, we were intrigued. By mixing a fast-paced first-person shooter with the procedurally generated weapon system of a loot-hoarding RPG like Diablo, and letting you play the game cooperatively with three of your pals, the kids at Gearbox have made a game we simply can’t wait to play. We went down to Plano, Texas to play the first three hours of the game and to chat with Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford about what the future holds for PC gaming, why Steam is not an ideal method of distribution, and why Randy loves Wal-Mart.

Read our interview with Randy after the jump!

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Posted 09/18/09 at 07:49:19 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Of late, Google has found it very difficult to be in the vicinity of an agreement with people from the publishing industry. The trend persisted on Thursday, when Google CEO Eric Schmidt again spurned Rupert Murdoch’s stated plan to begin charging for all online content owned by News Corp. He believes that it is highly unlikely that internet users will be willing to pay for accessing general news items on the internet given the nimiety of free news sources on the internet.

"In general these models have not worked for general public consumption because there are enough free sources that the marginal value of paying is not justified based on the incremental value of quantity. So my guess is for niche and specialist markets ... it will be possible to do it but I think it is unlikely that you will be able to do it for all news," Schmidt said while addressing the Royal Televison Society Convention in Cambridge, England, via video link. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch had said in August that News Corp. websites may become paid by the middle of next year.

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Posted 08/30/09 at 10:29:00 AM by Justin Kerr

Stronger than expected demand for microprocessors has prompted Intel to raise its Q3 forecast from $8.1 billion to $9.2 billion, and the good news is they aren’t the only ones predicting better times ahead. Both HP and Dell are forecasting Q3 revenues to rise, though this news comes hot on the heels of disappointing year to date earnings.

On Thursday, Dell reported a 23 percent drop in Q2 profit, but still managed to beat the street estimates. CEO Michael Dell claims, “if current demand trends continue, we expect revenue for the second half of the year to be stronger than the first half”. Rival Hewlett-Packard reported a similarly depressing drop in profit of 19 percent for the first half of the year, but is also expecting the trend to reverse itself soon.

The PC Industry is expected to benefit from the economic stimulus package in China, as well as what appears to be the start of an economic recovery in the U.S. Windows 7 is also expected to help move PCs in the consumer sector, but businesses will likely put off upgrading for at least a year or more.

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Posted 08/24/09 at 10:11:13 AM by Pulkit Chandna

CEOs have drawn a lot of flak in recent times for their fat paychecks, forcing some CEOs to accept pay cuts. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is the latest tech honcho to have his base salary trimmed down dramatically to $1. According to a regulatory document filed by his company on Friday, Larry Ellison will receive only $1 as his base salary during fiscal 2010, which began on June 1. The erstwhile richest man in the world is currently fourth on Forbes’ list of world’s most affluent people. Last year, he received a base salary $1 million, which only amounted to 1.2 percent of his total annual income. Ellison, who founded Oracle in 1977, owns a 22.7 stake in Oracle.

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Posted 08/19/09 at 09:26:04 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Many financial savants grabbed their crystal balls and went into hiding when the economy went into freefall. Now that there are signs of recovery, they are again gazing into their crystal balls with renewed hope. According to many of them, including IMF’s chief economist Olivier Blanchard, the recession is behind us.

Tech honchos now believe that the IT industry would lead the recovery. According to a survey conducted by KPMG, two thirds of the 130 CEOs that were surveyed believe the IT industry would recover quicker than the US economy. Furthermore, a vast majority of CEOs feel 2010 would bring glad tidings for their industry. One can expect lesser job cuts in the near future as more than two thirds of tech bosses are not too keen on cost cutting.

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Posted 01/27/09 at 09:21:43 PM by Mark Edward Soper

With the announcement of Craig Barrett's retirement in May, one of Intel's last links with the pre-PC era will vanish. Barrett's career at Intel started in 1974, when Intel was just seven years old and was introducing the first general-purpose microprocessor, the 8080. The 8080's descendents included the first 16-bit processor, the 8086, and the IBM PC's processor, the 8088. The IBM PC and its many descendants enabled Intel's rise to processor dominance.

Barrett became Intel's CEO in 1998, taking over for the legendary Andy Grove. Barrett's tenure as CEO saw the development of Intel's first Celeron economy CPU and high-end Pentium III processors, the introduction of the Pentium 4, diversification into communications chips, development of new Xeon and Itanium server processors, and the introduction of the Centrino portable chipset/processor technology.

During this period, Intel received formidable challenges from AMD's Athlon and Athlon XP, and frequently saw its processors beaten by AMD's processors in real-world performance tests. Barrett became chairman of Intel in 2005, and during his tenure as chairman, saw Intel retake the performance crown from AMD with the introduction of the Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, and Core i7 processor lines.

Barrett, 70, is retiring at a time in which Intel, like other technology companies, is facing tough times, and announced last week that it's closing two fab plants in the US as well as three assembly test facilities in Malaysia and the Philippines, affecting over 5,000 employees.

What was the first Intel product you used? Was it a processor, motherboard, chipset, network adapter, or something else? Looking back at Barrett's long career, what do you think were Intel's biggest hits - and misses? Join us after the jump for your chance to tell all.

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Posted 01/14/09 at 02:30:55 PM by Andy Salisbury

Given that Jerry Yang has been gone as long as he has, it’s nice that Yahoo’s Board has finally stepped up and named a new CEO. Who’s the new suit that’s going to fill the shoes? Carol Bartz, formerly of Autodesk.

Who is this Carol Bartz, one might ask? Well, according to Roy Bostock, Yahoo’s Chairman, “She is the exact combination of seasoned technology executive and savvy leader that the board was looking for, and we are thrilled to have attracted such a world-class talent to Yahoo. The board is united in its view that her energetic and decisive leadership style, coupled with a proven track record of driving growth, operational excellence and shareholder value, is exactly what Yahoo needs to get back on a path toward achieving its full potential.”

Her main challenge as new CEO will be turning around a struggling media company whose services are used by hundreds of millions of people. Ms. Bartz, we wish you the best of luck and we look forward to seeing what you do with the place!

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