private equity seemingly everywhere

With speculations running rampant about AMD, and Micron possibly going private, one has to wonder if the private equity firms actually know what they are doing. At the same time, should workers be concerned if their company has gone private or might be going in the future? There is simply not enough data at this point in make conclusions one way or another. But of course, that won’t stop people from arguing. A couple of interesting blurbs on this topic can be found over at Electronicsweekly.com. The first one, titled “It is all change for chip manufacturers” takes a very brief look at upcoming changes in the semiconductor industry, arguing that foundries, IP companies, and design houses provide services of equal value of the most sophisticated IDMs, thus questioning the wisdom of the private equity firms. The second news blurb, titled “Don’t blame the private equity firms, says chip CEO”, contains a few quotes from Altera CEO John Daanec who argues that the boards of directors that agree to sell the companies to private equity firms are those that are indeed making the poor decisions. However all of this might turn out, don’t expect the debate to be settled anytime soon.