Hello, I'm Simon Long, the finance editor of the Economist.

Welcome to Money Talks.

Coming up on the program, a tale of two chip makers, a mammoth hostile takeover bid.

Well, these companies might not be household names, Simon, but they are ubiquitous.

Their trips feature in more or less every phone, computer or tablet and that's why this is such a big deal.

And what's threatening old-fashioned customer service in Japan?

You hear people saying that at lunchtime their tray was

taken away day before they'd finished eating. Things that they say just wouldn't have

happened a few years ago because there are shortage of stuff and people in a

rush and don't have time to the same level of service anymore.

First, 10 years ago now, a 40% quota for female directors of listed companies came into force in Norway.

It was heralded as a breakthrough, and now most countries in Western Europe have followed suit,

forcing companies to reserve a certain share of seats on their boards for women.

Non-complying firms can, in theory, be forcibly dissolved.

Slavaaa Chankova, who's been looking into the effects of these quotas in Norway over the last 10 years

joins me now. Hello Staveer. Hello Simon. So broadly what are the effects? So since

Nara introduced the quota as you you said, most countries in Western Europe

introduced similar quotas. In some countries, they come with strict penalties.

Companies that fail to comply, maybe dissolved or may have to pay a hefty fine or in France the directors may not be paid.

Depending on how strict the penalties are, companies have complied to various degrees.

The overall result is that the share of women on corporate boards across Western Europe has really shot up to 30, 40% in many countries.

Some of the effects that were expected

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