Southern Africa
Saab Grintek is acquiring Aerospace Monitoring and Systems (AMS) in a R30 million deal, expected to be finalised in April 2006. See 'Saab Grintek acquires avionics company AMS'.
Vodacom has launched the first mobile television (TV) entertainment service on cellphones to customers in South Africa. All Vodacom customers who have Vodafone live! 3G cellphones will be able to watch 'live' television on these cellphones, says the company. "Mobile TV is widely seen as an attractive service for customers," states Pieter Uys, Vodacom's chief operating officer. "This is really an entertainment service with mass appeal. There will be many millions of mobile TV viewers worldwide by 2010."
Vodacom has announced the launch of the first push-to-talk over cellular (PoC) service to the South African business market. PoC communication is similar to the walkie-talkie or two-way radio communication experience, which is a one-to-one and/or one-to-many direct voice communication service. A PoC user can also create his own groups which would allow him to speak to everyone in this group simultaneously. The service will be carried across the Vodacom network, using the Motorola V360 cellphone.
Elonics has announced the acquisition of the Thoroughtec VMS (variable message signs) business division. The attainment has included all technology developments and business opportunities. Details of new products can be found at website: www.elonics.co.za/vms.htm
Valor Computerized Systems, a leader in productivity-enhancing solutions for the electronics industry, has appointed Zetech as its local representative. Valor is a developer of technologies for simulating and optimising the manufacture of printed circuit boards. Under the terms of the agreement, Zetech will resell and distribute Valor's solutions, and will also provide implementation, support and training services for electronics companies in the South African region. See 'Valor expands SA business'.
Elonics has been officially appointed as distributor for the Moxa Technologies product range from RJ Programmable Techniques. The complementary brands cover industrial solutions for Ethernet, wireless, switches and fibre.
Overseas
Business
With consolidated sales of 1,1 bn Euro and 20% sales growth, Rohde and Schwarz has announced that it has just completed its most successful year in its history. The electronics company reported it achieved double-digit growth rates in all its business fields. The family-owned company is active in four areas: test and measurement, secured radio-communications, broadcasting, and radio monitoring and location.
Companies
Texas Instruments has agreed to sell its sensors and controls unit to private investment firm, Bain Capital, for $3 bn. TI's sensors and controls business employs around 5400 globally and generates over $1 bn in annual revenue.
ThyssenKrupp Technologies and EADS have signed an agreement with BAE Systems on the joint acquisition of Atlas Elektronik of Bremen, Germany. In accordance with the agreement, ThyssenKrupp will hold 60% of Atlas and EADS, 40%. Both companies will pool their competencies in platform, electronic and system activities in the naval field, creating a strong naval electronics and systems company in Bremen.
Fluke Networks has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Visual Networks for approximately $75m. The acquisition is expected to strengthen its position in monitoring and analysis of enterprise networks, application performance and VoIP management, and expand presence into managed services marketplace.
EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering has signed an agreement to acquire substantially all the assets of Consultronics, including the shares of its subsidiaries in the UK and Hungary, for around $17,7m. Consultronics is a Toronto-based vendor of copper-based broadband access test equipment.
Power supplier Ault has signed a definitive merger agreement with power solutions supplier SL Industries, under which SL Industries will acquire all of Ault's outstanding shares of common stock.
Qualcomm, a developer of code division multiple access (CDMA) and other advanced wireless technologies, has acquired Berkana Wireless, a Silicon Valley-based provider of CMOS radio frequency integrated circuits (RFIC) to the wireless industry.
India's Wipro is set to acquire the privately-owned Austrian chip design services company NewLogic for about $56m, said to be the largest-ever acquisition by an Indian company in the semiconductor arena.
Digital media processor supplier Sigma Designs has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Blue7 Communications, a developer of advanced wireless technologies and ultrawideband (UWB) semiconductors, for around $14m.
PC graphics giant, Nvidia, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ULi Electronics, a chipset supplier based in Taiwan, for $52m in stock.
Nortel Networks has acquired Tasman Networks, a networking company that provides a portfolio of enterprise routers.
MKS Instruments, a provider of subsystems, has entered into an agreement to acquire Sweden's Umetrics, a provider of multivariate data analysis and modelling software for semiconductor, pharmaceutical, petrochemical and other industries.
Royal Philips Electronics is to create a separate legal structure for its semiconductors business, giving the company the flexibility to pursue strategic options for further strengthening the longer-term performance of these activities. In early 2005 Philips introduced a Business Renewal program to improve the semiconductor division's competitiveness and increase profitability and market share. According to recent reports, Philips also wishes to pursue a merger but has remained quiet about potential partners. The company intends to spin off its semiconductor business by mid-2006.
Japan-based Hitachi and Hitachi Mobile, have announced a stock-for-stock exchange that would make Hitachi Mobile a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi.
Fairchild Semiconductor has sold its LED and LED display product lines to Everlight International, a US subsidiary of Everlight Electronics Company of Taiwan.
Microchip Technology has agreed to provide German car maker BMW with access to patents covering the use of microcontrollers and microprocessors in battery-monitoring sensors. The technology is covered by the name SmartShunt. Microchip acquired the licensed technology as part of the PowerSmart acquisition in 2002.
Jennic announced a partnership with Taiwan's Institute for Information Industry (III) to deliver ZigBee solutions. As the primary ICT research development organisation in Taiwan, III has ported its ZigBee stack to Jennic's JN5121 IEEE802.15.4 wireless microcontroller, and is now able to offer this solution to local customers in Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region.
STMicroelectronics and Ember have teamed to develop complete solutions, including hardware, software and tools, for the fast-growing ZigBee wireless networking market. The partnership combines Ember's IP in 802.15.4/ZigBee radio hardware and software, with ST's semiconductor technology and development, as well as its global manufacturing and marketing resources.
South Korea's Samsung Electronics has agreed to team up with Vodafone and Qualcomm to introduce high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA)-enabled mobile phones in Europe this year.
Five leading plasma TV panel manufacturers have formed the Plasma Display Coalition to further promote the growth of plasma TV in the US, and to dispel lingering misconceptions about plasma TV. The Coalition's founders are Hitachi Home Electronics, LG Electronics USA, Panasonic Corporation of North America, Pioneer Electronics (USA) and Samsung Electronics USA. Together, the companies and their parent organisations have invested more than $10 bn in the R&D, design, manufacturing and marketing of plasma TV over the past decade. Plasma TV is rapidly becoming the big screen choice for today's home entertainment centre and a vital part of retailers' sales.
UK connector distributor, Flightspares Electronics, has re-emerged following a management-buy-out of the electromechanical division of Compstock Electronics from parent company, UMECO.
Industry
After two consecutive flat quarters, total EDA revenue was up 6% year-to-year during the third quarter, reaching $1,12 bn, according to the EDA Consortium (EDAC). Sequentially, Q3 revenue was up nearly 1% from the $1,09 bn reported for the second quarter. The 6% growth is the best that the EDA industry has turned in since the first quarter of 2004, when it also grew 6% year-over-year. EDAC chairman, Walden Rhines, noted that the EDA industry has shown little-to-no growth for several years, yet the semiconductor industry that it serves is showing a lot of strength. EDA's largest tool category, computer-aided engineering, was up 4% from the same period one year ago while revenue from the IC physical design and verification category increased 9%. Revenue from the PCB and multichip module category was essentially flat last year, while semiconductor IP revenue increased 5% from the third quarter of 2004.
China's semiconductor market grew by 32% to $40,8 bn in terms of overall consumption in 2005, making it the world's largest regional IC market for the first time ever, according to a report from IC Insights. By 2010, China's IC market is projected to more than triple and reach a remarkable $124 bn in terms of overall consumption, according to the research firm.
Due to slowing growth and falling prices, global mobile-phone market revenue is expected to decline in 2006, and will not recover to the peak level of 2005 until 2009, predicts market research firm iSuppli. Mobile phone production revenue will decline to $109,7 bn in 2006, down 4,7% from $115,1 bn in 2005, said iSuppli. It will then grow by single-digit percentages, recovering to its 2005 level of $115,1 bn by 2009.
The camera-enabled cellphone market is booming, as shipments are expected to reach nearly 1 bn units by the end of this decade, according to a new IC Insights report. In total, the market for camera-enabled cellular phones is expected to grow from 225 million units in 2004, to 365 million units in 2005, to 475 million this year to reach 780 million by 2008. In 2005, some 45% of all handsets shipped are expected to be camera-enabled products, up from 34% in 2004, according to the report.
The RFID market worldwide will reach $504m in 2005, up 39% from the previous year, according to a new Gartner report. As more industries adopt the technology toward the end of 2006, new licence revenue will climb to $751m. By 2010, Gartner forecasts worldwide RFID spending to surpass $3 bn. WiMAX technology has huge potential, but competing technologies are significant threats, according to In-Stat. While much uncertainty remains in this market, the market research firm foresees the WiMAX chipset market reaching as high as $950m in 2009. Another plausible, more conservative scenario, pegs this market at $450m in 2009. Competing technologies include 3G technologies on the cellular side (EV-DO Release 0, A, and B; HSDPA) and Wi-Fi (coupled with wireless mesh networking and MIMO enhancements within 802.11n) on the networking side, says the group.
Worldwide, the combined market of both digital satellite and terrestrial radio will grow from approximately 5 million unit shipments in 2004 to 22 million unit shipments in 2009, reports market researcher In-Stat. The primary drivers for this growth will be new and compelling content, data services, price erosion for digital radio receivers, and digital radio provider partnerships with new car manufacturers, it says.
The European Commission has said that daily fines may result following Microsoft's failure to make interface and interoperability information available to competitors as it was obliged to do under a March 2004 decision. The Commission said Microsoft had five weeks to comply. Microsoft has since released a statement sharply criticising the organisation: 'We believe today's Statement of Objections is unjustified. The Commission has issued this Statement regarding technical documentation we submitted last week, even though by its own admission neither it nor the Trustee have even read or reviewed these new documents. In the interest of due process, we think it would have been reasonable for the Commission and the Trustee at least to read and review these new documents before criticising them as being insufficient,' read the response from Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel. 'We are fully committed to comply with the Decision. We have shipped a new version of Windows, we have paid an historic fine, and we have provided unprecedented access to Microsoft technology to promote interoperability with other industry players. In total, we have now responded to more than 100 requests from the Commission. We continue working quickly to meet the Commission's new and changing demands. Yet every time we make a change, we find that the Commission moves the goal post and demands another change.'
Matsushita Electric Industrial and Toray Industries are investing about $1,6 bn to build a fourth plasma display panel plant to meet surging demand for flat-panel televisions.
Electronics supplier Agilent Technologies has announced that Walter Hewlett will retire as a director of the company effective 1 March, 2006.
RF Micro Devices has announced that it was recognised as the 'Electronics Company of the Year' by the North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA). The NCTA 21 Awards recognise outstanding contributions made by IT companies and individuals each year to the industry, community and state.
A new broadband over the power lines network service will be available soon to around two million homes and businesses in Texas. US electric transmission and distribution company, TXU Electric Delivery, and CURRENT Communications Group, a provider of broadband over power line (BPL) solutions, announced an agreement to transform TXU's power distribution network into the nation's first broadband-enabled Smart Grid. Overlaid on the existing electric distribution network, the Current BPL network solution incorporates advanced digital communication and computing capabilities that provide realtime monitoring. This will increase network reliability and power quality, manage customer outages more effectively and improve meter reading, said the companies. In addition, homes and businesses will be provided with high-performance broadband and wireless services, including the 'triple play' of voice, video and high-speed Internet access delivered over existing electrical lines by simply plugging into any home outlet.
The California Public Utilities Commission has approved the California Solar Initiative, a comprehensive proposal that provides $2,8 bn in incentives toward solar development in the US state over 11 years. It will establish an 11-year solar rebate program for new and retrofit installations of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, worth $3,2 bn.
Technology
Albert Einstein's most famous equation, expressing the relationship between mass and energy, has passed the latest and best tests of accuracy that scientists have yet devised, according to a recent report in the journal, Nature. Einstein's theory of special relativity was confirmed in two tests, where, according to the report, measured quantities of energy came within 0,00004% of the amounts predicted by Einstein. Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) used a gamma ray instrument developed by NIST called GAMS4, to again confirm that energy and matter are intimately related by the E = mc² relationship.
Silicon Line, a German analog and mixed-signal IC design company, claims to have developed a driver for a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) that can operate at up to 1,25 Gbps.
On 31 December 2005, when the Times Square New Year's Eve Ball slid down to mark the beginning of 2006, it also commemorated the end of an era. This is because 2005 was the final year in which the ball was lit entirely with conventional, incandescent light bulbs. In December 2006, the New Year's Ball will be outfitted by Royal Philips Electronic with environmentally-friendly and more advanced solid-state light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Philips is now auctioning off the old halogen crystal bulbs that lit the famous ball, with all proceeds going to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.
Japanese watchmaker Citizen Watch, has created the world's first flexible digital clock which is as thin as camera film and can be bent around the curve of a wall. At 3 mm thick it can be set along the walls of a building or on round pillars of train stations or offices. The clock, measuring 53 by 130 cm, displays the time in black numbers using technology developed by E Ink of the US.
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