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Electronics news digest

29 May 2013 News

South Africa

JSE listed Altron announced its annual results for the year ended February 2013. Revenue increased by 6% to R25 billion and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased 19% to R1,6 billion against the comparative year in 2012. Headline earnings per share decreased by 29% to 136 cents. The Altech Multimedia business, which includes the set-top box manufacturing Altech UEC, performed well despite the ongoing delay in the rollout of digital terrestrial television.

Overseas

Business

Silicon Labs reported first quarter revenue of $145,4 million, a sequential decline of 5% and an increase of 16% compared to the same period a year ago. GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0,59 were up 5% sequentially and an impressive 39% year over year.

On the back of record fourth quarter sales of $430,1 million, Microchip enjoyed record net sales of $1,6 billion for fiscal year 2013, up 14,4% from 2012. On a GAAP basis, consolidated net income for fiscal year 2013 was $127,4 million, or 62 cents per diluted share, a decrease of 62,2% from net income of $336,7 million, or $1,65 per diluted share, in the prior fiscal year.

International Rectifier announced financial results for the third quarter (ended March 24) of its fiscal year 2013. Revenue was $224,3 million, which was flat compared to $223,8 million in the prior quarter and a 9,6% decrease from $248,1 million in the prior year quarter. GAAP net loss for the third quarter was $21,2 million, or $0,31 per fully diluted share, compared to net loss of $32,7 million, or $0,47 per fully diluted share, in the prior quarter and net loss of $2,5 million, or $0,04 per fully diluted share in the prior year quarter.

Cree announced revenue of $348,9 million for its third quarter of fiscal 2013, ended 31 March. This represents a 23% increase compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2012, and a 1% increase compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2013. GAAP net income for the third quarter was $22,2 million, or $0,19 per diluted share, an increase of 134% year-over-year compared to GAAP net income of $9,5 million, or $0,08 per diluted share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2012.

ON Semiconductor announced that total revenues in the first quarter of 2013 were $661 million, down approximately 3% compared to the fourth quarter of 2012. GAAP net income was $22,6 million, or $0,05 per diluted share.

Linear Technology’s third quarter revenues of $314,5 million represented an increase of 3% over the previous quarter and a 1% increase over the third quarter of 2012. Net income of $111,0 million increased 25% over the second quarter of 2013 and 13% over the third quarter of 2012.

Revenue for Atmel’s first quarter of 2013 was $329,1 million, a 5% decrease compared to the fourth quarter of 2012, and 8% lower compared to the first quarter of 2012. GAAP net loss totalled $47,7 million or $0,11 per diluted share, compared to net loss of $12,3 million or $0,03 per diluted share for the fourth quarter of 2012, and net income of $20,4 million or $0,05 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2012.

Renesas Electronics reported year-end net sales of 785,8 billion yen and net loss of 167,6 billion yen, compare to net sales of 883,1 billion yen and net loss of 62,6 billion yen in the previous year.

Maxim Integrated Products reported net revenue of $605 million for its third quarter of fiscal 2013, unchanged from the prior quarter but 6% higher than the third quarter of last year. Diluted EPS was $0,44, compared to $0,26 in the preceding quarter and $0,18 in 2012’s third quarter.

Semiconductor foundry TSMC announced net sales for April 2013 of approximately NT$50,07 billion, an increase of 13,5% from March 2013 and an increase of 23,5% over April 2012. Revenues for the year to date totalled NT$182,83 billion, an increase of 25.1% compared to the same period in 2012.

Cypress Semiconductor’s revenue for the first fiscal quarter of 2013 declined 4% sequentially to $172,7 million, which was 6,7% lower than the same period last year. Net loss was $28,2 million ($0,19 per diluted share), which compares with net loss of $22,2 million ($0,15 per diluted share) in the immediately preceding quarter and $19,5 million ($0,13 per diluted share) in the first quarter of 2012.

Net sales for Freescale Semiconductor’s first quarter of 2013 were $981 million, compared to $957 million in the fourth quarter of 2012 and $950 million in the first quarter of 2012. Net loss for the first quarter was $48 million, or $0,19 per share, compared to a loss of $35 million, or $0,14 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2012 and a loss of $9 million, or $0,04 in the first quarter of 2012.

Altera reported first quarter 2013 sales of $410,5 million, down 7% from the fourth quarter of 2012 and up 7% from the first quarter of 2012. First quarter net income was $120,2 million ($0,37 per diluted share) compared with $120,8 million ($0,37 per diluted share) in the fourth quarter of 2012 and $115,8 million ($0,35 per diluted share) in the first quarter of 2012.

Fairchild Semiconductor announced results for the first quarter of 2013, with sales of $343,2 million, up 3% from the prior quarter and 3% lower than the 14-week first quarter of 2012. The company reported a first quarter net loss of $0,5 million or $0,00 per diluted share compared to a net loss of $13,6 million or $0,11 per diluted share in the prior quarter, and net income of $1,6 million or $0,01 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2012.

Infineon Technologies reported revenue of 918 million Euros for the second quarter of the 2013 fiscal year, 8% up on the number recorded in the previous quarter. Net income improved quarter-on-quarter from 19 million Euros to 33 million Euros, while earnings per share increased to 0,03 Euros as compared to 0,02 Euros one quarter earlier.

National Instruments announced first quarter revenue of $286 million, a new first quarter record and a 10% increase from the first quarter of 2012. GAAP net income was $19 million, with fully diluted EPS of $0,15.

Revenue in NXP Semiconductors’ first quarter was $1,1 billion, a 3% sequential decline and an 11% increase from the comparable year-ago period. The company recorded a net loss of $14 million ($0,06 per diluted share) in the most recent quarter, compared to $116 million ($0,47 per diluted share) in the previous quarter and $24 million ($0,10 per diluted share) in the first quarter of 2012.

Net sales for Microsemi’s second quarter of fiscal 2013 were $235,3 million, down 5% sequentially. GAAP net loss was $2,9 million or $0,03 per share, compared to net income of $14,2 million or $0,16 per share in the prior quarter.

Companies

In the wake of the unexpected death of CEO Jerald Fishman, Analog Devices has appointed Vincent Roche as president and chief executive officer (CEO) effective immediately, in addition to his election to the board of directors. Roche, 53, has been with the company for nearly 25 years, having served in key leadership positions including worldwide sales, strategic marketing and product management.

Staying with news regarding Analog Devices, Mouser Electronics announced a worldwide distribution agreement covering the company’s complete product portfolio, including data converters, amplifiers, MEMS, DSPs, RF and power management ICs and associated development tools.

NXP Semiconductors has acquired Code Red Technologies, an embedded software development tools provider, as a strategic addition to its microcontroller business line. Code Red Technologies is recognised for innovative tools enabling rapid development and debugging of full-featured applications for 32-bit ARM microcontrollers. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Cadence Design Systems announced its intent to acquire the IP business of Evatronix for an undisclosed sum, adding to its rapidly expanding IP offering. Based in Poland, Evatronix delivers a silicon-proven IP portfolio which includes certified USB 2.0/3.0, display, MIPI and storage controllers. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.

Industry

The Semiconductor Industry Association announced that worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $23,48 billion for the month of March 2013, an increase of 1,1% from the previous month. Global sales for March 2013 were 0,9% higher than the March 2012 total, and total sales through the first quarter of 2013 were 0,9% higher than the first quarter of 2012. Year-over-year sales were down some 18% in Japan, due in part to the devaluation of the yen, contrasting with a 6,9% increase in the Asia Pacific region.

UBM Tech, publisher of EE Times and EDN, presented Maxim Integrated with the 2013 Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) award for ‘Design Team of the Year.’ Nominees were evaluated by a distinguished judging panel comprised of experts from industry and academia. Maxim’s winning design team created the MAX2173, the first RF-to-Bits digital audio broadcast (DAB) tuner on the market. ARM was named ‘Company of the Year.’

The high-flying acceleration and yaw sensor product category was brought back to earth in 2012 when price erosion pulled down annual sales growth to 7%, the lowest percentage increase for motion-sensing semiconductors since 2005, according to IC Insights. Despite slower growth, acceleration/yaw sensors – which are accelerometers and gyroscope devices primarily made with micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology – reached record-high sales of $2,54 billion in 2012. The market is expected to grow 12% in 2013, followed by a 19% increase in 2014, as shown in the accompanying graph. (See image above).

Technology

Intel took the wraps off its new Silvermont SoC (system-on-chip) micro-architecture, built on the firm’s 22 nm Tri-Gate process. The technology is said to deliver ~3x higher peak performance or the same performance at ~5x lower power over the current-generation Atom processor core. Intel says Silvermont will serve as the foundation for a breadth of 22 nm products targeted at tablets, smartphones, microservers, network infrastructure, storage and other market segments including entry laptops and in-vehicle infotainment.





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