Crusoe, Transmeta’s advantage over Intel, AMD

You would think a company that has failed in just about every aspect of

executing its business plan would welcome being rescued. You would also think

that the management team of a company in as deep a hole as Transmeta would have

higher priorities than worrying about a hostile take-over.

One can only wonder what would prompt the ill-fated microprocessor maker to

adopt a poison pill strategy to block an outside investor from buying up enough

shares at the current next-to-nothing price to obtain a controlling interest in

the company. Does Transmeta think a major turn-around is just around the corner

and a smart investor would be able to purchase the company for much less than

what it will be worth six months or a year from now? Does the company think the

fundamental problems, such as fierce competition from Intel, will vanish

overnight?

Let's face it. Transmeta has reached the road and there is no one around to

keep the company from going over the cliff. Worrying about the wrong partner to

prevent Transmeta from falling to its death seems a silly waste of time and

resources. Instead, the company should focus on delivering on a key promise to

provide customers the ability to upgrade their computers by simply downloading a

new version of the software that runs the Crusoe processors.

Hailed as a key innovation and market advantage over Intel and AMD-based

computers, nowhere on the Transmeta Web site is there any page from which such

software upgrades can be obtained.