Intel Corporation is an American company specializing in the production of semiconductor computer circuits and chips. It was founded in 1968 by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce in an effort to make semiconductor memory more efficient and practical. For 25 years it was the world's largest microprocessor maker until it was overtaken by Samsung in 2018. It invented the x86 series of semiconductor chips, which are found in most PCs today. It supplies these microprocessors to companies such as Apple, Dell and HP. According to Forbes, in 2018, it was ranked the 16th largest American company and the 49th largest company in the world. Intel is listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker INTC (Forbes). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay On October 13, 1971, Intel became a public company. It issued 350,000 shares at a price of $23.50 per share, for a total of $8,225,000 (Deffree). Currently, Intel stock price is $51.75; therefore, if investors bought the shares during the IPO and held them until today, they would see an increase of 220.21% (51.75/23.50). The previous CEO, Brian Krzanich, resigned in June 2018 following a violation of anti-fraternization policy rules. Following this sudden departure, Robert H. Swan served as interim CEO until Intel named him the new CEO on January 31, 2019. The current Chairman of the Board is Andy D. Bryant (Intel Newsroom). Although there is much debate about whether the CEO and president should be the same person, in a large company like Intel, good governance usually requires that the role of CEO and president be split. The board of directors is responsible for overseeing the affairs and management of the company. It ensures that the company is managed in accordance with the company's mandate and the will of the shareholders. If the CEO, responsible for leading these operations, were also the president, then he could abuse his position to his advantage. A conflict of interest may arise if roles are combined as the CEO would vote on his or her own compensation. If the roles are separated, the CEO can focus on running the company and providing information to the board, while the chairman, in his role as mentor and supervisor, can advise the CEO on alternative courses of action, question faulty reasoning and examine his analysis and decisions. Since Intel has an independent CEO and president, the board of directors is more likely to get the company back on track and take corrective measures should the CEO stray from the company's mandate (Mohr). This ensures that the wishes of shareholders are respected, making Intel a more trustworthy company than if the roles of CEO and chairman were shared. At the beginning of the half year, on January 22, Intel's share price was $48.27. It is currently $51.75. Intel's stock price has mostly risen this half-year and seemed to be doing relatively well, reaching a high of 58.82 on April 22. It rose 12% in February. However, on April 26, Intel shares suffered their steepest decline in three years, falling 9%; the stock price fell from 57.61 the previous day to 52.43. This dramatic drop in price came after the release of weak full-year revenue guidance for 2019, which disappointed investors. Although the first quarter reported better-than-expected earnings, beating analysts' estimates, forecasts for the rest of the yearare lower than initial expectations. Intel expects total sales of $69 billion for 2019, $2.05 billion less than its estimate of $71.05 billion. This caused some investors in the company to lose their fortunes, causing Intel's market capitalization to drop to around $235.8 billion, losing $24 billion in value. This earnings report was released a week after Intel confirmed that it would not participate in the 5G smartphone market. After settling a legal dispute, Apple and Qualcomm have struck a deal, allowing Apple to use Qualcomm's 5G semiconductor chips when it starts producing iPhones with 5G capabilities. The loss of Apple's business to Qualcomm discouraged Intel from pursuing competition within that market. Intel was the king of microprocessors, with almost all computers containing its chips. One of the main reasons for this dominance was that their processors were a generation ahead of their competitors. For many years they had no significant competition. However, when Intel started having problems with some of its processors, several semiconductor companies rose up and began to pose a significant threat. Today, Intel operates in an industry characterized by intense competition. Intel has six distinct operating segments, each with its own competitors (Investopedia). It competes with many other semiconductor manufacturers, notably Samsung, AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and IBM. Recently, fewer and fewer people are buying PCs and laptops and opting for smartphones instead. When it comes to smartphone chip manufacturing, Samsung is clearly at the top. In addition to its own brand, Samsung also makes chips for Apple, MacBooks and other gadgets, making it one of the main competitors that Intel needs to take into account. In fact, Samsung surpassed Intel as the largest microchip maker in 2018. In the high-performance computer, CPU, and processor markets, Intel competes with AMD and Nvidia. America. AMD is Intel's biggest competitor when it comes to the production of x86 microprocessors. As mentioned above, Intel has been trying to compete with Qualcomm in the 5G wireless market. However, after Qualcomm struck a deal with Apple in April 2019, Intel decided to withdraw from this market, which disappointed investors. Currently, the semiconductor market is suffering a slowdown. The trade war between the United States and China has weakened many companies as China is a major supplier of microchip manufacturing products. Weak demand and increased supply play a key role in the decline. The semiconductor market collapsed by 8.2% in the last quarter of 2018. Because of this, companies like Intel suffered after the release of their first quarter report. However, according to experts, the market is expected to improve throughout 2019 with the release of new products and increased demand, which will help the global semiconductor market find its footing. Intel pays a quarterly dividend, paid in cash. As of 2019, Intel pays a dividend of 0.3150 per share, or $1.26 per share per year. This is a 5% increase from the previous year, when the dividend was 0.3000. Over the years, Intel has shown a trend of increasing its dividend payout; for example, in 2015, 2016, 2017, the quarterly dividends were 0.2400, 0.2600 and 0.2725 (INTC), respectively. Recently, dividends were paid on January 24 and March 13. For over ten years, dividends have been distributed in January, March, July and September. However, this year, the next dividend.