Southern Africa
Ericsson has been chosen as sole supplier by leading Mozambican operator mCel for the expansion and upgrade of its Mobile Packet Backbone Network solution (Mobile-PBN). The contract includes Redback's SmartEdge products, and is set to boost network capacity and manage increased traffic growth. The deal will provide full telecom-quality IP transport for all traffic and will allow the operator to introduce high-quality services quickly and reliably. Deployment has started and is scheduled for completion during Q2 2008.
Philips announced that it plans to participate in a joint venture to set up a manufacturing facility, as well as a recycling plant, for energy saving compact rluorescent lamp integrated (CFLi) light bulbs in Lesotho. The facility will be set up jointly with CEF, which is a private company held by the State of South Africa that focuses on opportunities in the energy sector in the region, and Karebo Systems, a privately owned company specialised in demand side management initiatives in the lighting and energy sectors. Philips holds a 40% stake, while CEF and Karebo Systems each hold a 30% stake in the joint venture.
In October 2007, Powertech announced its intention to buy the 50% shareholding that it did not own in its joint venture company ABB Powertech Transformers, from ABB South Africa for a consideration of R320 million. The Competition Tribunal has now given its unconditional approval of the transaction, thereby satisfying the only remaining condition precedent. The power transformer company will henceforward be known as Powertech Transformers.
AfroCentric Investment has announced its intention to acquire a 34,9% interest in Jasco Electronics. AfroCentric will also subscribe for 40 000 redeemable preference shares in Jasco's wholly-owned Iningi Investments. The transactions effectively facilitate Jasco's acquisition of a significant minority interest in MTec, a South African cable manufacturer. MTec's majority share-holder is Taihan Electric Wire Company, a Korean-based fibre-optic cable manufacturer. The purchase consideration will be settled by issuing ordinary shares to AfroCentric vendors. The purchase price of each Jasco share is 325 cents and the issue price of each AfroCentric share is 260 cents. AfroCentric is expected to issue approximately 38 million ordinary shares having an approximate aggregate value of R99 million.
Accutronics has moved premises. The new physical address is 16 Loots Road, Blairgowrie and the new telephone number is +27 0(11) 781 2645.
Overseas
Business
In the 2007 financial year, Kontron successfully continued its profitable growth path of recent years. Total revenue grew from 405 million Euros to 447 million Euros, representing a nominal increase of 10%. Operating earnings (EBIT) were up 41%, rising from 32,9 million Euros to 46,3 million Euros. Net income for the year was 32,6 million Euros, compared with 25,7 million Euros in the previous year. Earnings per share (diluted) rose to 60 cents compared with 46 cents in the previous year, representing an increase of over 30%.
Companies
STMicroelectronics, together with Intel and Francisco Partners, announced the closing of their previously announced Numonyx joint venture. At the closing, ST contributed its flash memory assets and businesses in NOR and NAND, including its phase change memory (PCM) resources and NAND joint venture interest, to Numonyx in exchange for a 48,6% equity ownership stake and $155,6 million in long-term subordinated notes. Intel contributed its NOR assets and certain assets related to PCM resources, while Francisco Partners, a private equity firm, invested $150 million in cash. Intel and Francisco Partners equity ownership interests in Numonyx are 45,1% in common shares and 6,3% in convertible preferred stock, respectively.
SolidWorks has acquired UK-based Priware, developer of CircuitWorks software, which bridges the gap between electronic CAD and mechanical CAD software. The acquisition gives engineers around the world a platform to integrate electronic and mechanical designs for the millions of electronic products developed every year. CircuitWorks enables engineers to accelerate and simplify electronic product design by integrating ECAD files into their 3D models and 2D drawings. As a SolidWorks Gold Partner Product, CircuitWorks allows engineers to ensure electronic components such as printed circuit boards will fit and work correctly in their products.
Zetex and Diodes announced that the companies' respective boards of directors have reached agreement on the terms of a recommended acquisition of Zetex by Diodes. Under the terms of the recommended proposal, Zetex shareholders will receive 85,45 pence in cash for each Zetex share, valuing the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Zetex at approximately £91,6m. The transaction is subject to the approval of Zetex shareholders and following such approval, it would be expected to complete in June 2008. Undertakings to support the transaction have already been received from shareholders representing approximately 56,5% of Zetex's existing issued ordinary share capital.
With the signing of a memorandum of understanding, Infineon has become the first semiconductor maker to pledge its full support for a European Commission automotive safety initiative. The move adds momentum to eCall, a Pan-European proposal launched by the Commission with the goal of encouraging EU member states as well as automakers, mobile operators, service businesses and automotive supply businesses to collaborate on the development of an integrated, automatic accident alert system for automobiles. The Commission hopes that eCall will radically lower the number of accident victims in Europe - 41 000 in 2007 - and help to bring down accident-related costs from the 180 billion Euros reported last year.
NXP and STMicroelectronics have announced their agreement to combine key wireless operations to form an as yet unnamed joint-venture company with strong relationships with all major handset manufacturers. The new company will have the scale to better meet customer needs in 2G, 2,5G, 3G, multimedia, connectivity and all future wireless technologies. The combined venture will be created from successful businesses that together generated $3 billion in revenue in 2007 and will own thousands of important communication and multimedia patents. The new company will be a solid top-three industry player and among the few companies with the scale and expertise to pursue the R&D investments necessary to establish itself as a leading player in the wireless and mobile-multimedia market. ST will take an 80% stake in the joint venture, while NXP will receive $1,55 billion from ST, including a control premium, to be funded from outstanding cash
Industry
According to market researcher Frost & Sullivan, the world DC-DC converter market is witnessing continued growth, thanks largely to better designs and value add-ons that improve efficiency and reduce heat dissipation. Additional factors expected to sustain demand include new medical applications, the increasing use of cost-effective point of load (POL) devices and the ongoing expansion of industrial infrastructure in the Asian region. A recent report reveals that this market earned revenues of $4,34 billion in 2006 and estimates this to reach $6,67 billion in 2013.
Worldwide sales of semiconductors in February were $20,44 billion, an increase of 1,5% from February 2007 when sales were $20,14 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). Sales declined by 4,9% from January when the industry reported sales of $21,48 billion. SIA said the sequential decline in February sales was in line with normal seasonal patterns for the industry.
The WiMAX Forum is projecting more than 133 million WiMAX users globally by 2012. The forecast is based on the results of an independently commissioned research study. Additional data from the study estimates that approximately 70% of the forecasted WiMAX users by 2012 will utilise mobile and portable WiMAX devices to access broadband Internet services. Further signifying the rapid growth of the WiMAX ecosystem, the first Mobile WiMAX Certified products are expected to achieve certification in Q2 2008. This milestone will foster additional growth for the more than 260 service providers deploying WiMAX services in 110 countries worldwide. The WiMAX Forum estimates that by 2011 there will be more than 1000 Mobile WiMAX Forum Certified products found throughout the world.
The EDA Consortium Market Statistics Service (MSS) announced that the electronic design automation (EDA) industry revenue for Q4 2007 grew 6,7% to $1,6 billion, versus $1,5 billion in Q4 2006. The four-quarter average growth rate, which compares the most recent four quarters to the same four quarters in the prior year, was 9,1%. Companies that were tracked employed 27 563 professionals in Q4 2007, up 7,7% from the 25 586 employed in Q4 2006.
After a few false starts, MEMS-based oscillators are finally beginning to leave the shelves in volume. Already last year, close to 3 million MEMS oscillators shipped to end customers, says Munich-based technology analysts Wicht Technologie Consulting (WTC), which recently updated its research on the MEMS answer to quartz timing devices. Three companies are now delivering such devices: Discera and SiTime are manufacturing silicon MEMS oscillators, while Toyocom produces micromachined quartz MEMS oscillators leveraging its so-called QMEMS process. Starting very modestly in 2007 at $2,5 million, WTC believes the market should grow over 120% per year to reach $140 million in 2012, as MEMS equivalents begin to displace quartz oscillators and crystals in more and more segments.
VIA Technologies announced that it has agreed to transfer the Pico-ITX specification to the Small Form Factor Special Interest Group (SFF-SIG), which is leading a broad industry effort to create and promote standards for tiny computer and controller boards and modules, for the purpose of creating an official governing standard. In return, the SFF-SIG will draft a formal specification document and promote it with the goal of broadening the number of suppliers and customers who build and purchase Pico-ITX-compatible single board computers. The SFF-SIG intends to publish a specification within the next few months.
Escalating defence budgets and spending on sophisticated, technologically advanced equipment are supporting growth in the primary lithium batteries market worldwide. In particular, new battery chemistries developed for industrial, automotive and military applications make the battery market dynamic and vibrant. New analysis from global growth consulting company Frost & Sullivan finds that the market earned revenues close to $1,10 billion in 2007, and predicts that it will reach $1,77 billion by 2014. The market, however, is highly competitive among the different primary lithium battery chemistries. Additionally, the threat from secondary lithium-ion batteries also influences the growth of certain primary lithium batteries used in select consumer applications.
Technology
Graphene holds the potential to replace silicon in a broad range of applications, according to researchers at the University of Maryland. Graphene is known to have better electrical conductivity than any other known material at room temperature, but this new research into the effects of thermal vibrations, shows that they have a remarkably small effect on electrons in graphene.
Wind generation technology developed by Cambridge Consultants has, for the first time, been networked and deployed in a vast 'wind simulator' that has generated wind pressures equivalent to a Force 5 hurricane. The wind simulator will roar into action this summer at The Insurance Research Lab for Better Homes in Canada, as it attempts to destroy a house. The exercise is part of the 'Three Little Pigs' project being run by The University of Western Ontario, to improve safety standards for low-rise dwellings. The wind simulator takes the form of 70 networked, modular 'pressure actuators', which are mounted against the exterior surface of a full-scale two-storey pitched-roof house. At the heart of each actuator is a fast-acting valve system that allows the simulated wind pressure to reverse direction at up to seven times a second. A sophisticated control and networking system, also developed by Cambridge Consultants, then co-ordinates the actuators to realistically replicate the complex wind effects over the entire surface of the house.
A new Web service called Make3D (http://make3d.stanford.edu/) is able to convert a single two-dimensional image of an outdoor scene into a 3D model. Developed by a team at Stanford University, the system employs a complex machine learning algorithm that makes intelligent guesses based on an object's colour, texture and size and comparing these to objects whose properties have already been learnt. This is effectively the same process that a human brain employs in order to contextualise a scene, by extrapolating the properties of already known objects. For example, according to one of the developers, grass has a distinctive texture that makes it look very different from far away than it does close up. The algorithm thus learns to infer the distance of a patch of grass in a 2D image by analysing the progressive change in texture.
Intel is poised to release an advanced Wi-Fi system, known as the rural connectivity platform, capable of connecting outlying areas to the Internet. The platform, already tested in India, Panama, Vietnam and South Africa, can transmit data across tens of kilometres at bit rates up to 6,5 Mbps - high enough to facilitate video-conferencing and telemedicine applications. Initially slated for sale in India - at $1000 per pair of nodes - it is not clear at this stage whether the system will actually be affordable to its target market in SA, particularly when ISP costs are taken into account.
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