South Africa
• Poynting Holdings, a technology group spec-ialising in defence and specialised antennas and digital television broadcast equipment, has changed name to Alaris Holdings. The Poynting Defence & Specialised group now goes under the name Alaris Antennas, while African Union Communications (aucom) retains its name.
Overseas
Business
• Lattice Semiconductor amassed revenues of $88,6 million for the first quarter of its fiscal 2015, up from the $83,6 million of the prior quarter but lower than the $96,6 million recorded in last year’s first quarter. Net loss for the first quarter of 2015 was $53,3 million or $0,46 per diluted share.
• Second-quarter revenue of the Infineon Group grew by 31% to 1,48 billion Euros, compared to the 1,13 billion Euros reported one quarter earlier. It attributed the jump in revenue to the first-time consolidation of International Rectifier, strong organic revenue growth in the chip card and security segment, and the continued strengthening of the US dollar against the Euro.
• STMicroelectronics’ first quarter revenues were slightly better than its usual seasonality, decreasing 6,8% on a sequential basis, although reflecting the impact of the US dollar strengthening on about 15% of revenues that are Euro-denominated, and lower sales of components for PC applications than anticipated. On a year-over-year basis, first quarter revenues decreased 6,6% and, excluding legacy ST-Ericsson products and the one-time $15 million payment to ST from a patent settlement benefiting the analog and MEMS product line, decreased 3,6%. The microcontroller, memory and secure MCU segment led the product lines with year-over-year revenue growth of 8,0%.
• First quarter group revenues for ams were 153,3 million Euros, 78% higher than in the same quarter of 2014 and 10% higher quarter-on-quarter. Net income was 42,2 million Euros or 0,59 Euros per diluted share, compared to 14,7 million Euros or 0,21 Euros per diluted share in the first quarter of 2014.
• Texas Instruments reported first-quarter 2015 revenue of $3,15 billion, net income of $656 million and earnings per share (EPS) of $0,61. This compares with revenue of $2,98 billion, net income of $467 million and earnings per share (EPS) of $0,44 in the first quarter of 2014.
• Following its merger with Spansion closing earlier than expected, Cypress Semiconductor announced its first-quarter 2015 results. Revenue of $209,1 million was accrued, including 18 days of Spansion results, with $173,9 million of that coming from existing Cypress business. The company recorded a net loss of $230 million or $1,17 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $7,9 million or $0,05 per diluted share in last year’s first quarter.
• Fairchild reported first-quarter 2015 sales of $355,7 million, up 6% from the prior quarter and 3% from the first quarter of 2014. First quarter net income was $1,1 million or $0,01 per diluted share, compared to net losses of $42,7 million or $0,36 per diluted share in the prior quarter, and $9,3 million or $0,07 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2014.
• Quarterly revenues of $372 million for Linear Technology’s third quarter of fiscal year 2015 increased $24 million or 6,9% over the third quarter of 2014 and 5,5% over the previous quarter. Net income of $135,2 million increased 15,0% over the third quarter of 2014 and 9,4% over the second quarter of 2015.
• Littelfuse reported sales and earnings for the first quarter ended 28 March 2015. Sales were $210,3 million, a 2% increase (6% excluding currency effects) compared to the prior-year quarter due primarily to solid growth in both the automotive and electronics businesses. First quarter 2015 earnings were $0,88 per diluted share, down from the $1,12 of 2014’s same period.
• Maxim Integrated Products reported net revenue of $577 million for its third quarter of fiscal 2015, a 2% increase over the prior quarter but a 5% decrease from the same quarter of last year. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) in the March quarter were $0,28, compared to a $0,25 loss per diluted share in the prior quarter and diluted EPS of $0,42 in the third quarter of 2014.
• For the first quarter of NXP Semiconductors’ fiscal 2015, revenues decreased to $1,47 billion from $1,54 in the same quarter last year. The company reported a net loss of $107 million or $0,46 per diluted share, compared to net income of $149 million ($0,61 per diluted share) and $110 million ($0,43 per diluted share) in the fourth and first quarters of 2014 respectively.
Companies
• FPGA maker Lattice Semiconductor has completed the acquisition of Silicon Image, a provider of wired and wireless connectivity solutions, for roughly $600 million. Lattice believes it is onto a good thing with the resulting combination of the design flexibility and time to market benefits of FPGAs, and the highly integrated, function and cost optimisation benefits of ASSPs, anticipating immediate accretion to its earnings per share (EPS) on a non-GAAP basis.
• Atmel has sold off its XSense touch sensor assets to UniPixel. The deal includes related manufacturing assets and the assumption of costs, but excludes the XSense patent portfolio and other intellectual property, which Atmel is retaining.
• SIGFOX and Texas Instruments (TI) are working together to increase IoT deployments using the sub-1 GHz spectrum. SIGFOX’s two-way network is based on an ultra-narrowband (UNB) radio technology for connecting devices, and enables wireless sensor nodes that are cheaper and consume less power than 3G/cellular connected nodes, while providing long-range connectivity. TI’s CC1120 transceiver delivers long-range connectivity and coexistence to SIGFOX’s network with strong tolerance of interference.
Industry
• The Semiconductor Industry Association announced that worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $83,1 billion during the first quarter of 2015, an increase of 6% compared to the first quarter of 2014. Regionally, sales in March 2015 were up compared to the previous month in Asia Pacific/all other (3,1%), Europe (2,7%) and China (1,0%), while Japan (-0,4%) and the Americas (-6,9%) both saw sales decrease compared to February.
• ABI Research’s TeardownIQ deconstructed the new Apple watch to reveal a design centred on a custom Apple Processor (APL 0778). Other components include Broadcom’s BCM43342 multi-protocol RF receiver, a Dialog Semiconductor PMU, NXP Semiconductors NFC controller, an NFC booster from ams, IDT wireless charger receiver, Elpida RAM, SanDisk / Toshiba Flash memory, STMicroelectronics sensors, and capacitive touch solutions from Analog Devices.
Technology
• InterDigital, a mobile technology research and development company, nanoelectronics research centre imec, and WiGig chip developer Peraso Technologies successfully integrated their respective technologies into the world’s first WiGig-based millimetre-wave mesh backhaul system. The technology will enable easier deployments for small cell mobile backhaul, resulting in lower-cost solutions for high-speed data delivery in 4G and 5G networks.
• A group of researchers from China and the USA have developed a postage stamp-sized microphone that can harvest energy from acoustic vibrations, paving the way for technology that could allow a cell phone to top up its battery charge while the user speaks, for example. The rollable, paper-based triboelectric nanogenerator is just 125 m thick and can generate around 121 mW per square metre.
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