TI says on track for $700 mln savings

NEW YORK, USA:  Texas Instruments is on track for $700 million in annual cost savings by the end of the third quarter, as it forges ahead with global expense cuts this quarter and next, its top executive said on Thursday.

Chief Executive Richard Templeton, speaking at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York, said TI's decision to shutter a Japanese research and development center was just one of several similar moves being made.

Texas Instruments, which is refocusing its business on analog and embedded chips from wireless, had announced it was aiming for $500 million in cost cuts this year, on top of its plan to save $200 million by moving away from development of baseband chips, the key processor in a phone.

"Our strategy was to move early, to move aggressively, because the world had changed, but at the same time, to focus on the areas with the best growth going forward," he said. "We still have a little more to go. But those things are under way."

The day before, Templeton told an investor conference that he saw "signs of optimism" for business but stressed that his company remained careful about subscribing to the idea of a quick economic rebound.

Templeton said he saw strong growth in emerging markets such as India, China and Eastern Europe in a rebound but did not give a timeframe.



New growth areas

The executive said TI, which started out developing technology used in oilfields and now supplies technologies as diverse as calculators and projectors, was pursuing new and untapped markets for its analog and power-saving chips, with applications in everything from medical equipment to bicycles.

Its research labs are even looking at ways to harvest power from people's surroundings: "scrounging" or harvesting power from everywhere from the human body to vibrations in a wall.

While TI is moving out of baseband chips as growth in that market slows, it is also still aggressively pursuing the market for cellphone application chips with its OMAP range, which powers features like video, gaming or photography.

Templeton said OMAP was gaining ground with customers such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Sony Ericsson, a venture of Sony Corp and Ericsson.

However, OMAP lost some market share in 2008 as Apple Inc's popular iPhone did not use TI's chips, according to technology research firm iSuppli. Templeton said TI would court Apple as a client but noted that the iPhone maker has started its own investments into chips.

"Even though we would love to go compete and supply OMAP to them, I'm thinking the likelihood is probably low," he said.

Shares in Texas Instruments have climbed nearly 20 percent in 2009, outpacing the Dow Jones Industrial Index's 3.3 percent dip over the same period.