South Africa
Tellumat has achieved Level 3 black economic empowerment status in terms of the country’s codes of good practice. The news came with the company’s latest BEE rating by SANEVA, the South African National Empowerment Verification Agency, at the end of January. The improved rating affords Tellumat’s customers 110% recognition for their BEE procurement with Tellumat. In addition, the company qualifies as a ‘value-adding enterprise’, which gives its customers an additional 25% recognition of their expenditure. Tellumat boasts 32,3% black ownership, including 10,7% black women ownership, as well as advanced empowerment initiatives in all other areas of the BEE codes.
Mango aims to be the first South African airline to offer Internet connectivity on board its aircraft later this year, subject to CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) approval processes. The airline’s partnership with G-Connect will deliver the Internet at a cost of less than R1 per megabyte.
JDSU executives paid local distributor Comtest a visit in February. They shared the latest JDSU product news and industry developments with Comtest and their clients. Pictured below, at Comtest’s new head office, are (left to right): Çigdem Tamer (JDSU’s sub-regional director, Middle East, Africa, Middle Asia) with Richard Lewis (Comtest sales director) and Gerhard Auer (JDSU VP Central/Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa).
Overseas
Business
National Semiconductor reported sales of $362 million and net income of $53,2 million, or 22 cents per diluted share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2010, which ended 28 February. These third quarter sales were 5% higher than the second quarter of fiscal 2010, when the company reported $345 million in sales, and 24% higher than the $292 million reported in last year’s third fiscal quarter. Stronger demand for National’s analog products in industrial markets, served primarily through distributors, drove the increase in third quarter revenues, while sales to wireless handset customers were down seasonally following the holidays. Third quarter net income of $53,2 million, or 22 cents per diluted share, was an increase from the $47,0 million, or 20 cents per share, in the second quarter of fiscal 2010.
Mentor Graphics announced results for the fiscal fourth quarter and full year ending 31 January. For the full year, the company reported revenues of $802,7 million, up 2% from fiscal 2009, and a GAAP loss per share of $0,23, down from a loss per share of $0,99 the prior year. For the fiscal fourth quarter, the company reported revenues of $237,1 million and GAAP earnings per share of $0,39. For the full year fiscal 2011, the company expects revenues to grow around 5%.
Littelfuse reported sales and earnings for the fourth quarter and full year of 2009. Sales for the fourth quarter were $127,9 million, a 21% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2008 and a 10% increase from the third quarter of 2009. On a GAAP basis, diluted earnings per share for the fourth quarter of 2009 were $0,53, compared to a loss of $0,42 in the same period the previous year. For the full year, sales of $430,1 million for 2009 were down 19% compared to 2008. On a GAAP basis, annual diluted earnings per share were $0,43 for 2009, compared to $0,37 for 2008.
For the quarter ended 31 December 2009, Monolithic Power Systems reported net revenues of $46,5 million, down 3,0% sequentially from $48,0 million in the third quarter of 2009 and up 34,1% from $34,7 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. GAAP net income was $4,7 million, with GAAP earnings per share (EPS) of $0,12 per diluted share. For the full 2009 year, net revenues were $165,0 million, compared to $160,5 million for the previous year, representing an increase of 2,8%. Annual GAAP net income was $19,7 million, with EPS of $0,54 per diluted share.
Fourth quarter (ended 31 December) net revenues for Power Integrations were $66,1 million, up 10% sequentially and an increase of 56% compared with the fourth quarter of 2008. Net income was a record $9,18 million, or $0,32 per diluted share, compared with net income of $9,15 million, or $0,32 per diluted share in the prior quarter and a net loss of $20,7 million, or $0,72 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2008. Full-year 2009 revenues were $215,7 million, an increase of 7% compared with $201,7 million in 2008. Net income for the year was $23,3 million, or $0,82 per diluted share, compared with $1,8 million or $0,06 per diluted share in 2008.
Ramtron reported total revenue of $14,4 million for the fourth quarter of 2009, compared with total revenue of $16,3 million for the same quarter last year. Net income for the quarter was $755 000, or $0,03 per share, compared with net income of $915 000, or $0,03 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2008. For full-year 2009, the company reported total revenue of $47,5 million, compared with $63,6 million for full-year 2008. Full-year 2009 net loss was $5,9 million, or $0,22 per share, compared with net income of $3,7 million, or $0,13 per share, for full-year 2008.
Semtech reported unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010 that ended 31 January. Net revenues were $85,0 million, up 35,6% from the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009 and up 13,1% when compared to the third quarter of fiscal year 2010. GAAP net income was $9,5 million or 15 cents per diluted share, compared to $6,3 million or 10 cents per diluted share in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009 and a loss of $20,9 million or 34 cents per share in the third quarter of fiscal year 2010.
Sierra Wireless’ revenue for the fourth quarter of 2009 was $144,0 million, with a net loss of $2,7 million, or loss per share of $0,09. For the year ended 31 December 2009, revenue was $526,4 million, compared to $567,3 million in 2008, and net loss was $39,9 million or $1,29 per share, compared to net earnings of $62,6 million $2,00 per share in 2008.
Companies
Exfo has acquired NetHawk, a provider of 2G, 3G and 4G/LTE protocol analysers and simulators for wireless network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) and network operators, in an all-cash transaction estimated at 37,3 million Euros for all outstanding shares on a fully diluted basis. NetHawk posted revenue of 28,5 million Euros and EBITDA of 4,2 million Euros for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2009. Exfo plans to retain NetHawk’s management, R&D, sales and marketing teams of approximately 370 employees mainly located in Finland, India and the United States. The acquisition is expected to be neutral for the remainder of fiscal 2010 and accretive in fiscal 2011, excluding after-tax amortisation of intangible assets and stock-based compensation costs.
Fujitsu has integrated u-blox’ GPS technology in its new ultra-mobile notebook with street navigator. The location-aware LifeBook UH900 is preloaded with Garmin Mobile PC navigation software and has a built-in u-blox’ NEO-5Q GPS module. The solution capitalises on u-blox’ seamless compatibility with the Windows 7 Sensor and Location platform.
Fairchild Semiconductor has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Power Integrations in the People’s Republic of China. Fairchild is seeking a permanent injunction preventing the sale, manufacture or use in China, or the importation into China, of Power Integrations products alleged to infringe four Chinese patents, including products in the TinySwitch II, TinySwitch III, LinkSwitch II, LinkSwitch XT and TOPSwitch GX product families. The company is also seeking monetary damages.
Industry
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported that worldwide semiconductor sales in January were $22,5 billion, an increase of 0,3% from December sales of $22,4 billion. Sales increased by 47,2% from January 2009 when they were $15,3 billion. All monthly sales numbers represent a three-month moving average. According to SIA, strength in a number of markets is driving the current semiconductor industry upturn, including personal computers, cellphones, automobiles and industrial applications.
Diamond Systems has become a participating member of the Qseven Consortium, a multivendor standards body dedicated to advancing the Qseven computer-on-module (COM) standard. The newly released FeaturePak embedded standard, developed by Diamond, is seen as being a highly complementary technology to Qseven. Qseven t COMs adhere to a standardised form factor of 70 x 70 mm and plug into application baseboards via a single, high-speed, 230-pin MXM connector. Qseven modules integrate all core functions of an embedded computer, including CPU, memory and interfaces for graphics, audio, mass storage, network, USB and other I/O expansion.
Worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending is projected to surpass $29,4 billion in 2010, a 76,1% increase from 2009 spending of $16,7 billion, according to Gartner. Following the significant declines in 2009, all segments of the semiconductor capital equipment market are expected to experience strong double-digit growth in 2010. Overall worldwide wafer fabrication equipment (WFE) spending declined 46,4% in 2009, a slight improvement from the 4Q09 forecast. Worldwide WFE spending in 2010 will grow 76,6% from 2009. WFE spending will be driven by aggressive technology upgrades, especially for the leading memory companies. Utilisation rates continue to run in the mid-80s to high 80s for total utilisation and in the low 90s for leading edge. Leading-edge utilisation will hit the mid-90-percent range by the end of 2010, which will start to drive stronger capacity additions in 2011.
IC Insights has forecast that the worldwide IC market will jump 27% in 2010 to $253 billion and another 15% in 2011 to $290 billion. At $253 billion, the 2010 IC market would exceed by 8% the previous high of $234 billion reached in 2007. One of the product categories driving strong double-digit IC market growth in 2010 is the DRAM segment. In fact, fuelled by strong increases in average selling prices, IC Insights believes that the DRAM market will surge at least 74% this year. The upgrade to IC Insights’ earlier worldwide IC market forecast, which initially called for 15% growth in 2010, is almost entirely due to a revision in the IC market change expected for 1Q10/4Q09. While a moderate seasonal decline in 1Q10/4Q09 IC sales was previously anticipated, it now appears that the 1Q10/4Q09 IC market will display a 3% increase.
Technology
Researchers from Ohio State University have developed a novel ‘dense SRAM’ that is said to be smaller, faster and more energy efficient than contemporary solutions. The solution derives its name from the way the chip is packed, occupying five times less surface area than similar products. Such architecture is facilitated by a component which operates using quantum mechanical tunnelling – a phenomenon referring to a particle’s ability to penetrate energy barriers in electronic structures. Consequently, the dense packaging results in a more compact solution that consumes up to 60 times less energy than contemporary SRAMs. Moreover, the architecture also results in significantly faster operation with reduced latency.
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