General > General Technical Chat

Analog Devices in talks to buy Maxim

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SilverSolder:

--- Quote from: E-Design on July 13, 2020, 08:25:12 pm ---
--- Quote from: grouchobyte on July 13, 2020, 08:09:45 pm ---
--- Quote from: 16bitanalogue on July 13, 2020, 07:46:04 pm ---
--- Quote from: grouchobyte on July 13, 2020, 06:26:42 pm ---https://www.reuters.com/article/us-maxim-intg-m-a-analog-devices/chipmaker-analog-devices-to-buy-rival-maxim-for-about-21-billion-idUSKCN24E14B

21 billion? Finally I can consider Maxim again after mothballing them for over 3 decades. I have been lobbying TI, LT and ADI to buy the f***king turd for decades.

Maxim royally pissed me off in 1991 and I swore I would never consider them ever again,.... until now :clap:

Bob

--- End quote ---

To be fair, Maxim has never been a company to pay attention to the smaller companies, makers, or hobbyists. Maxim focuses on their strategic partners like Apple, Samsung, Amazon, etc. So the undercurrent of "Friends don't let friends by Maxim" has never been a concern for the company because there has never been a desire to play in the mass market.
Contrast this to TI, especially over the last 15 years, has had a strategy of "growing the tail" and going after the mass market and doing a pretty damn good job at it.

--- End quote ---

Correct. I agree. Maxim never gave a s**t about my business and never gave them a second look even though their parts were ideal in my designs. So for 30 plus years they never saw the light of day in my world and when I explained the rationale to my employer and my clients....Most were totally okay with my decisions simply because they themselves had been burned by Maxim’s selfish policies or as they called it “ “strategy” or market “focus”

So now, because of market pressure ADI are acquiring Maxim.  I applaud  that because now I can consider them as a complement to the other global players, since many of their parts are an outstanding value to me now clearly without the maxim bullsh*t factor.....like why are the MOQ and deliveries ridiculous, etc

--- End quote ---

Agreed.. Ideally, ADI buys them up and takes their portfolio as their own including ADI/LT generous policies of very rarely obsoleting a device. On the other hand, if ADI adopts Maxims obsolescence policy - the world will end.  :(

--- End quote ---

Aren't modern manufacturing processes flexible enough that it is pretty easy to bake a new batch of a chip?

free_electron:

--- Quote from: SilverSolder on July 13, 2020, 08:31:38 pm ---
--- Quote from: E-Design on July 13, 2020, 08:25:12 pm ---
--- Quote from: grouchobyte on July 13, 2020, 08:09:45 pm ---
--- Quote from: 16bitanalogue on July 13, 2020, 07:46:04 pm ---
--- Quote from: grouchobyte on July 13, 2020, 06:26:42 pm ---https://www.reuters.com/article/us-maxim-intg-m-a-analog-devices/chipmaker-analog-devices-to-buy-rival-maxim-for-about-21-billion-idUSKCN24E14B

21 billion? Finally I can consider Maxim again after mothballing them for over 3 decades. I have been lobbying TI, LT and ADI to buy the f***king turd for decades.

Maxim royally pissed me off in 1991 and I swore I would never consider them ever again,.... until now :clap:

Bob

--- End quote ---

To be fair, Maxim has never been a company to pay attention to the smaller companies, makers, or hobbyists. Maxim focuses on their strategic partners like Apple, Samsung, Amazon, etc. So the undercurrent of "Friends don't let friends by Maxim" has never been a concern for the company because there has never been a desire to play in the mass market.
Contrast this to TI, especially over the last 15 years, has had a strategy of "growing the tail" and going after the mass market and doing a pretty damn good job at it.

--- End quote ---

Correct. I agree. Maxim never gave a s**t about my business and never gave them a second look even though their parts were ideal in my designs. So for 30 plus years they never saw the light of day in my world and when I explained the rationale to my employer and my clients....Most were totally okay with my decisions simply because they themselves had been burned by Maxim’s selfish policies or as they called it “ “strategy” or market “focus”

So now, because of market pressure ADI are acquiring Maxim.  I applaud  that because now I can consider them as a complement to the other global players, since many of their parts are an outstanding value to me now clearly without the maxim bullsh*t factor.....like why are the MOQ and deliveries ridiculous, etc

--- End quote ---

Agreed.. Ideally, ADI buys them up and takes their portfolio as their own including ADI/LT generous policies of very rarely obsoleting a device. On the other hand, if ADI adopts Maxims obsolescence policy - the world will end.  :(

--- End quote ---

Aren't modern manufacturing processes flexible enough that it is pretty easy to bake a new batch of a chip?

--- End quote ---
nope. on the contrary ...
modern processes are so finely tuned and the fabs so expensive you don't want to run old gunk in them

- for a given factory/process the cost per square millimeter is a quasi constant.
- the smaller the geometries you can run the higher the cost becomes.

so running something that was designed for 1 micrometer in a 8 nanometer fab is horrifically expensive ! becasue you are using equipment that con do precise work for course work. Tt's like buying a set of micrometers to mark a line in chalk where you are going to chop the tree with an axe ...


grouchobyte:
In the late 1990’s i worked as a design engineer at Maxtek ( a  Tektronix and Maxim JV)
Even then.....the friction between these two tech companies was contentious eventually ending in a separation in which I was absorbed into Tektronix. Jack Gifford was the Maxim CEO back then. He micromanaged everything including stationary supplies

You can well imagine how bad the corporate culture was back then. That said, Maxim treated its small customers like crap unless they were big like apple, etc. To Maxim “size” does matter. Always did.

Hopefully ADI can integrate the products into the fold and train the employees to adhere to the ADI rules of the road. ADI did a good job with LT so my confidence is high. Their products will have a home no matter what, but those upper management assholes need to go.... imho

Mr. Scram:
I don't think the endless mergers are good for anyone save a few investors perhaps. However, in the case of Maxim there seems ample room for improvement. They have plenty of interesting parts on paper but little of it is more than vapour ware for most people.

SilverSolder:

--- Quote from: free_electron on July 13, 2020, 08:48:30 pm ---
--- Quote from: SilverSolder on July 13, 2020, 08:31:38 pm ---
--- Quote from: E-Design on July 13, 2020, 08:25:12 pm ---
--- Quote from: grouchobyte on July 13, 2020, 08:09:45 pm ---
--- Quote from: 16bitanalogue on July 13, 2020, 07:46:04 pm ---
--- Quote from: grouchobyte on July 13, 2020, 06:26:42 pm ---https://www.reuters.com/article/us-maxim-intg-m-a-analog-devices/chipmaker-analog-devices-to-buy-rival-maxim-for-about-21-billion-idUSKCN24E14B

21 billion? Finally I can consider Maxim again after mothballing them for over 3 decades. I have been lobbying TI, LT and ADI to buy the f***king turd for decades.

Maxim royally pissed me off in 1991 and I swore I would never consider them ever again,.... until now :clap:

Bob

--- End quote ---

To be fair, Maxim has never been a company to pay attention to the smaller companies, makers, or hobbyists. Maxim focuses on their strategic partners like Apple, Samsung, Amazon, etc. So the undercurrent of "Friends don't let friends by Maxim" has never been a concern for the company because there has never been a desire to play in the mass market.
Contrast this to TI, especially over the last 15 years, has had a strategy of "growing the tail" and going after the mass market and doing a pretty damn good job at it.

--- End quote ---

Correct. I agree. Maxim never gave a s**t about my business and never gave them a second look even though their parts were ideal in my designs. So for 30 plus years they never saw the light of day in my world and when I explained the rationale to my employer and my clients....Most were totally okay with my decisions simply because they themselves had been burned by Maxim’s selfish policies or as they called it “ “strategy” or market “focus”

So now, because of market pressure ADI are acquiring Maxim.  I applaud  that because now I can consider them as a complement to the other global players, since many of their parts are an outstanding value to me now clearly without the maxim bullsh*t factor.....like why are the MOQ and deliveries ridiculous, etc

--- End quote ---

Agreed.. Ideally, ADI buys them up and takes their portfolio as their own including ADI/LT generous policies of very rarely obsoleting a device. On the other hand, if ADI adopts Maxims obsolescence policy - the world will end.  :(

--- End quote ---

Aren't modern manufacturing processes flexible enough that it is pretty easy to bake a new batch of a chip?

--- End quote ---
nope. on the contrary ...
modern processes are so finely tuned and the fabs so expensive you don't want to run old gunk in them

- for a given factory/process the cost per square millimeter is a quasi constant.
- the smaller the geometries you can run the higher the cost becomes.

so running something that was designed for 1 micrometer in a 8 nanometer fab is horrifically expensive ! becasue you are using equipment that con do precise work for course work. Tt's like buying a set of micrometers to mark a line in chalk where you are going to chop the tree with an axe ...

--- End quote ---

I'm not sure I understand the reasoning.  For example:  say I have an old 300dpi document that I used to print on my 300dpi laser printer in the past.  Then today, I choose to print it on my brand new 2400dpi laser printer...  the document will look the same (still 300dpi resolution), and I will not have incurred greater cost for the fact of the new printer being capable of much higher precision - paper is still paper, toner is still toner, etc.? 

This is true even if the new printer is much more expensive than the old one.  I guess if you write off part of the cost of the printer on each printout, you could get uneconomical results compared to the old, written down printer, but that seems more of an accounting technicality than a real cost?

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