Dallas Semiconductor Corp

Maxim Integrated Products Inc., a maker of semiconductors, agreed to buy Dallas Semiconductor Corp. for about $2.5 billion in stock to add communications and power-management chips. Dallas Semi's power-management chips help devices such as cell phones conserve power and run cooler. Its chips also work as clocks and calendars in personal computers.

Maxim Integrated Products Inc., a maker of semiconductors, agreed to buy Dallas Semiconductor Corp. for about $2.5 billion in stock to add communications and power-management chips. Dallas Semi's power-management chips help devices such as cell phones conserve power and run cooler. Its chips also work as clocks and calendars in personal computers.

There's something different this year about the hundreds of workers harvesting strawberries at the Bob Jones Ranch in northeast Oxnard. They're all carrying compact semiconductors. The dime-sized "memory buttons," attached to each worker's ID card, keep track of how many boxes each employee fills, how much the worker has earned, even which fields are producing the best yields.

Carmelo J. Santoro, who sits on the board of seven high-tech companies, was at it again. Santoro stepped in as acting chief executive of Platinum Software Corp. a week ago, after requesting the resignation of the Irvine-based company's founder, chairman and CEO. It was not the first time Santoro had traded his outside director hat for that of crisis manager. In early 1990, he became acting chairman of Ashton-Tate Corp.

Bounties are offered, wanted advertisements are posted on billboards and headhunters lurk on the Internet. Qualified computer workers are hunted down wherever they might be. With the fast pace of growth in high-tech fields, many companies are struggling to find technical talent to fill their needs. "Software and computers are a significant part of everyone's business.

Bounties are offered, wanted advertisements are posted on billboards and headhunters lurk on the Internet. Qualified computer workers are hunted down wherever they might be. With the fast pace of growth in high-tech fields, many companies are struggling to find technical talent to fill their needs. "Software and computers are a significant part of everyone's business.