The Hindu Business Line : Freescale not going slow on investments

Tech Forum: Mr Rich Beyer (right),Chairman and CEO, Freescale Semiconductor, and Mr A. M. Naik, Chairman and Managing Director, Larsen & Toubro, in Bangalore on Thursday. –

Shamik Paul

Bangalore, Nov. 13 Freescale Semiconductor has said the economic crisis would not slow its investment plans, even though it’s cautious; it would now invest more in emerging markets such as India, China and Brazil rather than in traditional markets such as US or Europe.

The maker of embedded semiconductor said though it is seeing a slowdown from a revenue perspective and there is a lot of pressure; but there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic, and in any downturn there are new opportunities.

“We are being very careful about the way we conduct business, and about our expenses. We cannot ignore the downturn because that is an important factor. At the same time we are keeping the same level of investments in research and development and sales and marketing,” said Mr Henri Richard, Senior Vice-President and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer. He spoke on the sidelines of the fourth Freescale technology forum being held here.

He said the company would comparatively invest more in markets like India, China and Brazil because when the economic situation settles down, it would obviously be led by demand in these high-growth markets.

“Therefore it is extremely important for us to be well positioned with products that will serve the new customers in these markets,” Mr Richard said. Clearly, the next area of focus is the customers in these markets, he added.

Mr Richard said new designs and new technology would come in to production in the next 24 months.

“That level of activity is extremely healthy and very exciting in terms of innovation it will bring to the market. What I am trying to say is that it is very important to keep the faith,” he added.

Semiconductors are at the core of many important mega trends such as going green and reducing power consumption, and can bring a lot of innovation to the market place, Mr Richard said.

Thorough review

He said Freescale is doing a thorough review of all its new product introductions, and is making sure it focuses its resources on products that the company believes will bring it the fastest return on investment.

Automotive solutions and communication processors are the two pillars of the company’s business historically, and it wants to complement those with a special effort in the industrial application space and also selectively in the consumer electronic space, where historically it has been less present than in other segments, said Mr Richard.