RE:RE:Inteljoedette, the armchair engineer? I don't think so.
These companies have teams and teams to manage those teams, etc. If the experts in those teams don't know about their competitors/former classmates I would be surprised. They will have a team working on R&D on semi-conductors and they will pretty up to snuff with the goings-on of the semi-conductor industry. It is their job to to as up-to-date as possible.
I know it is diffucult for someone without a deep knowledge in something to imagine someone having such a huge grasp of anything.