POET Technologies Inc. V.PTK

Porters 5 forces.....

[bobsmith1]

So how does this relate to POET and can these be applied in our case.....



Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

1. Threat of New Entrants. In the early days of the semiconductors industry, design engineers with good ideas would often leave one company to start up another. As the industry matures, however, setting up a chip fabrication factory requires billions of dollars in investment. The cost of entry makes it painful or even impossible for all but the biggest players to keep up with state-of-the-art operations. It comes as no surprise, then, that established players have had a big advantage. Regardless, there are signs that things could be changing yet again. Semiconductor companies are forming alliances to spread out the costs of manufacturing. Meanwhile, the appearance and success of "fabless" chip makers suggests that factory ownership may not last as a barrier to entry.
2. Power of Suppliers. For the large semiconductor companies, suppliers have little power - many semiconductor companies have hundreds of suppliers. This diffusion of risk over many companies allows the chip giant to keep the bargaining power of any one supplier to a minimum. However, with production getting hugely expensive, many smaller chip makers are becoming increasingly dependent on a handful of large foundries. As the suppliers of cutting-edge equipment and production skills, merchant foundries enjoy considerable industry bargaining power. The largest U.S.-based foundry belongs to none other than IBM – which is also a top chip maker in its own right.
3. Power of Buyers. Most of the industry's key segments are dominated by a small number of large players. This means that buyers have little bargaining power.
4. Availability of Substitutes. The threat of substitutes in the semiconductors industry really depends on the segment. While intellectual property protection might stop the threat of new substitute chips for a period of time, within a short period of time companies start to produce similar products at lower prices. Copy-cat suppliers are a problem: a company that spends millions, if not billions, of dollars on the creation of a faster, more reliable chip will strive to recoup the R&D costs. But then along comes a player that reverse engineers the system and markets a similar product for a fraction of the price.
5. Competitive Rivalry. The industry is marked by intense rivalries between individual companies. There is always pressure on chip makers to come up with something better, faster and cheaper than what redefined the state-of-the-art only a few months before. That pressure extends to chip makers, foundries, design labs and distributors – everyone connected to the business of bringing chips from R&D into high-tech equipment. The result is an industry that continually produces cutting-edge technology while riding volatile business conditions.