Intel, Please No More Acquisitions

Intel's stock price hit a new 52 week low today, closing at $18.18. This new low happened less than a week after Intel announced an almost $8B acquisition of security software company McAfee. I was thinking about this today as I was driving down the 101 freeway in Santa Clara and passed by McAfee and Intel's headquarters.








Although McAfee and Intel are only located less than a mile apart, they are worlds apart as companies. Not only is one primarily a software and subscription based services company and the other almost exclusively a hardware company, but the key technologies for each company are different and seemingly mostly unrelated.

I will leave it for a future blog on the history of over $20B of failed acquisitions that Intel has made and later liquidated for cents on the dollar over the last 10 years. Now, there is a new news that Intel is considering acquiring Infinieon's wireless business. Based on the market's reaction to the McAfee announcement and Intel's track record of acquisitions, as an Intel shareholder, I humbly ask Intel, please no more acquisitions.

iPad Usage Report

Mashable summarized a report by Resolve Market Research on initial characteristics of iPad buyers. Some interesting results:

- The second largest demographic group purchasing the iPad is 45+ (after 18-45). This older demographic is largely new to purchasing Apple products.
- 37% of customers intending to purchase an iPad are new customers to Apple (no iPod, iPhone or Mac legacy).
- The two devices least likely to be purchased after an iPad is purchased are eBook Readers and portable gaming devices implying that the iPad can cannibalize the market for Amazon's Kindle and Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.
- Most people still feel that owning an iPad is a discretionary, luxury purchase.