Cyrix

Problem:
The company was originally positioned as a head-to-head competitor with Intel and AMD. Although the company did have great technology and engineering, as a result of many factors, it failed to achieve that positioning or customer traction with its products that competed head on with Intel. The company's growth had reversed and it had become consistently unprofitable.

Solution:
A new corporate strategy and brand identity was developed for the company, positioning them as the leading provider of innovative microprocessors and platforms enabling a huge new market for low-cost PCs. The company made an innovative, new product the cornerstone of this new strategy and changed its positioning from a focus on performance to a focus on enabling new system price-points. However, to effectively accomplish this positioning they needed low-cost manufacturing capability.

Result:
The launch of the MediaGX processor with Compaq's innovative Presario priced at $999 sparked a revolution in low-cost computing. Low cost PCs are now the majority of the market and Cyrix is viewed as the innovator in that revolution. The company also launched innovative platforms, such as the WebPAD and MediaCenter, both of which became important new computing platforms down the road. National Semiconductor acquired the company for $550M, a great result for Cyrix investors, and provided the company with world-class manufacturing capability.