NXP Semiconductors said on Sunday that it would buy a smaller peer, Freescale Semiconductor, in an $11.8 billion deal that would create a big maker of chips for industries as varied as automobiles and mobile payments.
The merger will also offer some relief to the private equity firms that bought Freescale at the height of the leveraged buyout boom, only to see the financial crisis bring the company low.
NXP is Dutch, and I have to admit, seeing a Dutch chip maker acquire Freescale makes me feel a little bit proud. Together with ASML, my little swamp does contribute at least something to the world of computing.
Early April’s fool?
http://www.asml.com/asml/show.do?lang=EN&ctx=5869&rid=51584
Yes, we, the proud Dutch citizens on OSAlert know this. At least it would be expected, as it was all over the news, again and again.
‘luckily’ they are not the only ones:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-29/reports-chinese-hackers-targe…
Probably some of the technology went into the Chinese fighter plane:
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/chinese-official-j-31-ste…
Edited 2015-03-02 14:36 UTC
Of course, if the ice cap melt, .nl will be gone.
Where would these companies move?
Atlantis…
So you KNOW those chips will have great powermanagement
They’ll build bigger dikes. The Netherlands are/is an odd place. Usually you are driving a car on a bridge above the ships. In the Netherlands the ships are sailing above you. How they cope with turning the laws of nature upside down is a mystery.
Don’t get your hopes up, 35% of the primary dykes (measured in km) are in a bad shape. Only the outer ones are still fine. The constructions (such as sluices) are in an even worse shape: 45% does not fit the requirements. As soon as a breach happens, such as in 1953 (also due to bad maintenance), the inland ones will likely collapse and the Belgians will get more beach property
The current budget cuts don’t actually help.
http://www.compendiumvoordeleefomgeving.nl/indicatoren/nl2043-Veili…
(Disclaimer: am Belgian, girlfriend is Dutch though)
Edited 2015-03-02 13:07 UTC
Well, they can try to reinforce the ties they had with Suriname and move their population to that still not densely populated place.
Lots of water and great coastline. Despite the hot weather, I think the dutch will enjoy it.
This move is going to bring a lot of architectures under one roof: PowerPC, 68K (in the form of ColdFire), 68XX, 8051, XA, and two very diverse sets of ARM product lines. And this is before we even begin to talk about the other ICs these two companies manufacture.
Its going to be quite a task to reconcile all of this.
(ring ring ring)
Johnny: “Hello? Yes, whom would you like to speak to? Thom Holwerda? Can I ask who is calling? Can I put you on hold?”
Footsteps are heard in a corridor.
The sound of knocking on the door. The door has a sign that reads “Thom Holwerda’s office”.
Johnny: “Thom? You have a phone call. It’s a guy. He spoke in English with an incredibly faint Dutch accent. Says he has a beef with you about your comment. What’s his name? It’s Gertrude? Gantley? George? It’s something Italian sounding and starts with a “G”.
Thom: “Guido?”
Johnny: “Yes! That’s it! The guy’s first name is Guido. And his last name sounds definitely Dutch. Van Morrison? No, that’s not it. Von Doom? No! Van Halen? Noooo! Come on memory, work with me! Van… Rossum! Yes, that’s it! Guido van Rossum!
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_van_Rossum)
Edited 2015-03-02 14:32 UTC
If we are going to start on that, how about Edsger Wybe Dijkstra ?:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsger_W._Dijkstra
Even ignoring everything else Dijkstra did:
Without Dijkstra maybe Python would have had goto statements !
I should add:
Thom is more of a ‘poweruser’, he’s never been a developer.
… every time a question goes unanswered for a longer amount of time there, some guy with an Indian name shows up in the thread and asks if he can close the ticket.
First off why is this unreasonable, and why does it matter what the nationality of the name is?
Do the math: 1/4 of the world are native Indians. Not counting those whose name sound “Indian” to westerners.
So the probability that an “Indian” closes a thread is large