South Africa
Hamrad Electronics closed its sales outlet at 48 Bree Street, Cape Town, at the end of December 2010, and has moved to new premises at 19 Woodbridge Business Park in Koeberg Road, Milnerton. To commemorate the relocation, the company has many items which are available at special prices, a list of which can be obtained by e-mailing [email protected]. The company also has a new catalogue which is available on CD or can be downloaded from www.hamrad.co.za.
Electronics and electrical engineering group Reunert released its results for the year ended 30 September 2010. Revenue increased by 4% from R10,3 billion to R10,7 billion. Operating profit increased by 7% to R1,2 billion and normalised headline earnings per share improved by 3% to 515,7 cents. EBITDA margins improved from the 12% achieved in 2009 to 12,5%. A final dividend of 220 cents was declared, 17% up on last year’s 188 cents per share. This brings the total dividend to 287 cents per share for the year (2009: 253 cents).
Retron has moved premises to 28 13th Road, Kew. The company’s telephone and fax numbers remain unchanged.
Tempe Technologies has penned a sales representative agreement with Murata. According to Tempe CEO, Willem Hijbeek, the partnership will provide the opportunity to offer its customers some of the world’s most advanced components, in addition to providing value-added service to Murata’s existing distribution channels in South Africa.
Overseas
Business
Pulse Electronics reported results for its third quarter ended 1 October 2010. Net sales grew to $122,0 million from $101,4 million in the prior-year quarter primarily due to robust growth in the network and power product groups. Operating profit according to GAAP was $8,1 million in the quarter. Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations were $0,18 in the quarter.
For its fiscal fourth quarter of 2010, Analog Devices reported revenue of $770 million, an increase of 7% from the immediately prior quarter and an increase of 35% from the same period one year ago. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) were $0,73, compared to $0,65 in the immediately prior quarter, and $0,36 in the same period one year ago. For the full fiscal year, revenue was $2,8 billion, an increase of 37% from $2 billion recorded in fiscal year 2009. Diluted EPS for the year from continuing operations was $2,33, compared to $0,85 in fiscal 2009.
National Semiconductor reported sales of $390,4 million and net income of $83,5 million, or 34 cents per diluted share, for the second quarter of fiscal 2011, which ended 28 Nov 2010. The company’s second quarter sales were 5% lower than the $412,0 million reported in the first quarter of fiscal 2011 due to lower demand from OEMs and distributors in all regions, but were 13% higher than the $344,6 million reported in the second quarter of fiscal 2010. Second quarter net income of $83,5 million, or 34 cents per diluted share, was a decrease from the $88,8 million, or 36 cents per diluted share, in the first quarter of fiscal 2011. One year ago, National reported net income of $47,0 million, or 20 cents per diluted share.
Companies
Novatel Wireless has agreed to acquire Enfora, a privately-held, Texas-based provider of intelligent asset-management solutions utilising wireless technology and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, for approximately $64,5 million in cash. Possible additional consideration of up to $6 million is contingent on certain performance targets being met. Enfora had revenues of $61,3 million during the 12 month period ended 30 September 2010, with gross margins of approximately 36%. Novatel expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to its non-GAAP earnings.
The US International Trade Commission recently ruled against Knowles Electronics in favour of Analog Devices, in a MEMS microphone patent case. Separately, AD has sued Knowles for shipping microphone products which infringe its patented wafer anti-stiction application (WASA) process.
Broadcom has signed an agreement to acquire Gigle Networks, a privately-held company that develops system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions for home networking over power lines. By adding powerline to its technology portfolio, Broadcom will be able to provide additional functionality to its customers in broadband home segments including set-top box, broadband carrier access and wireless router. Gigle’s powerline networking technology is HomePlug AV certified and is designed to be compliant with the IEEE 1901 standard for high-speed powerline communications. In connection with the acquisition, Broadcom expects to pay approximately $75 million to acquire all of the outstanding shares of capital stock and other rights of Gigle.
Laird Technologies announced its acquisition of Cattron Group International, whose sales revenues for the fiscal year ending 30 September 2010 were $53,8 million. The purchase expands the scope of Laird’s wireless M2M product offering and the markets those products serve. Cattron designs and supplies high-reliability wireless remote control systems serving the railroad, mining and industrial markets globally.
Rambus has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission requesting the commencement of an investigation pertaining to products from Broadcom, Freescale Semiconductor, LSI, MediaTek, NVIDIA and STMicroelectronics. The complaint seeks an exclusion order barring the importation, sale for importation, or sale after importation of products from its Dally and Barth families of patents.
Mentor Graphics has reaffirmed its commitment to the future of open source for embedded development with the acquisition of certain assets of CodeSourcery, a provider of open source GNU-based toolchains and services for advanced systems development.
Altera has acquired Avalon Microelectronics, a provider of flexible Optical Transport Network (OTN) IP, for use in its FPGA and ASIC products. With the acquisition of Avalon, Altera expands its portfolio of customisable IP solutions for OTN applications, supporting data rates at 1,2G, 2,5G and 10G, as well as 40G and 100G. Financial terms have not been disclosed on the acquisition.
Nokia has filed claims in the UK High Court, Dusseldorf and Mannheim District Courts in Germany and the District Court of the Hague, Netherlands, alleging that Apple infringes Nokia patents in many of its products sold in these countries, including iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. During the last two decades, Nokia has invested approximately 40 billion Euros in research and development and built one of the wireless industry’s strongest and broadest IPR portfolios, with around 11 000 patent families.
NXP Semiconductors and Dover Corporation have signed a definitive agreement whereby Dover’s affiliate Knowles Electronics will acquire NXP’s Sound Solutions business, a provider of speaker and receiver components for the mobile handset market. Under the terms of the agreement, Knowles will acquire the business for $855 million in cash. In conjunction with the transaction, NXP and Knowles have agreed to the terms of a strategic relationship whereby NXP will become Knowles’ exclusive source for certain high-performance mixed-signal semiconductors.
Teledyne Technologies and Canadian company DALSA Corporation have entered into an agreement that provides for the acquisition of DALSA by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Teledyne. Pursuant to the transaction, Teledyne will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of DALSA for CAD$18,25 per share payable in cash. The aggregate value for the transaction is approximately CAD$341 million.
Industry
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported that worldwide semiconductor sales in October were $26,3 billion, staying flat from the prior month’s figure. Sales increased by 19,8% from the October 2009 figure of $22,0 billion. Sales for the year through October were $248,2 billion, compared to $181,2 billion for the same period in 2009, an increase of 37%. All monthly sales numbers represent a three-month moving average.
A study by IMS Research has revealed that, in 2009, of the 20 million IEEE 802.15.4 ICs shipped, fewer than half were ZigBee certified. The market for 802.15.4 ICs using proprietary networking software is often underestimated, partly because the market is fragmented with a large number of small deals accounting for much of the volume. Yet there is clear evidence of some application areas moving to standardised solutions. On aggregate, 802.15.4 ICs using proprietary software appear set to lose 20% of their market to ZigBee and RF4CE. Even so, their shipments will triple from 2009 to 2015.
Global photovoltaic demand was 4,0 GW in the third quarter of 2010, up 107% on one year earlier, according to Solarbuzz, an international solar energy market research and consulting company. Total industry revenues for the quarter were $17,9 billion, up 74% on the same quarter last year. In its latest quarterly report, Solarbuzz also reported Chinese manufacturers accounted for 51% of global shipments in Q3’10, up from 47% in the same quarter one year earlier. Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers took eight out of the top 12 cell manufacturer positions. China-based JA Solar captured the lead in solar cell shipments with an 8% market share in Q3’10.
According to a new research report from the analyst firm BergInsight, 2% of the mobile network connections worldwide were used for wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) communication at the end of 2010. The number of M2M subscribers increased by 46% year-on-year to an estimated 81,4 million. In the next five years, the total number of wireless M2M connections is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32% to reach 294,1 million connections in 2015. By that time, M2M as a share of the total number of cellular connections is projected to reach 4%.
A forecast of the 2010 billion-dollar fabless IC suppliers, which was excerpted from a ranking of the top 50 fabless IC suppliers in IC Insights’ 2011 edition of The McClean Report, shows that there are 13 fabless IC companies expected to register more than $1,0 billion in sales in 2010, up from 10 companies in 2009 and eight in 2008. These 13 suppliers are forecast to have a combined $41,4 billion in sales and represent about 70% of the $59,6 billion worth of total fabless company IC sales expected in 2010. The list also shows that nine out of the 13 billion-dollar fabless IC companies expected in 2010, and nine of the top 10, are based in the US. With no Japanese company in the ranking, it is obvious that the fabless/foundry business model has not significantly caught on in Japan, and, in IC Insights’ opinion, is unlikely to do so in the near future. However, as Taiwanese and Chinese IC design houses continue to advance, IC Insights expects an increasing number of Taiwan- and China-headquartered companies to eventually make their way up the top fabless supplier ranking.
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