Overseas
Business
EXFO reported record sales and bookings as well as strong earnings for its 25th fiscal year ended 31 August 2010. Annual sales, including revenue from the recently divested life sciences and industrial division, increased 32,0% to $228,1 million in fiscal 2010 from $172,9 million in 2009. GAAP net earnings totalled $6,6 million, or $0,11 per diluted share. In fiscal 2009, GAAP net loss totalled $16,6 million, or $0,27 per share. In the fourth quarter of 2010, GAAP net earnings amounted to $5,0 million, or $0,08 per diluted share, compared to $0,2 million (or $0,00 per diluted share) in the third quarter of fiscal 2010, and net loss of $1,2 million ($0,02 per share) in the fourth quarter last year.
Texas Instruments recently opened its first wafer fabrication facility, or ‘fab,’ in China. Located in the Chengdu High-tech Zone (CDHT), which is considered by many to be China’s next major technology hub, the new plant expands TI’s analog production capacity and takes manufacturing closer to the company’s growing customer base there. The fab is a fully equipped 200 mm manufacturing facility and was purchased from Cension Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It includes an operating 120 000 square foot fab that can support more than $1 billion in annual revenue and a 134 000 square foot fab reserved for future production needs. This announcement follows TI manufacturing expansions in the US, Japan and Germany over the past 24 months.
Fairchild Semiconductor announced results for the third quarter ended 26 September 2010. The company reported third quarter sales of $414,4 million, up 1% from the prior quarter and 25% higher than the third quarter of 2009. Net income was $35,8 million or $0,28 per diluted share, compared to $43,8 million or $0,34 per diluted share in the prior quarter and $2,7 million or $0,02 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2009.
Announcing its financial results for the third quarter of 2010, Lattice Semiconductor recorded revenue of $77,1 million, unchanged from the figure reported in the prior quarter, and an increase of 57% over the $49,1 million reported in the same quarter a year ago. FPGA revenue for the third quarter was $24,7 million compared to $24,6 million reported in the prior quarter, and increased 63% from the $15,2 million reported in the same quarter a year ago. PLD revenue for the third quarter was $52,4 million compared to $52,5 million reported in the prior quarter, and increased 55% from the $33,9 million reported in the same quarter a year ago. Net income for the third quarter was $15,4 million ($0,13 per share), compared to $16,7 million ($0,14 per share) in the prior quarter and a net loss of $4,1 million ($0,04 per share) reported in the same quarter a year ago.
Freescale Semiconductor announced financial results for the third quarter ended 1 October 2010. Net sales were $1,15 billion, compared to $1,11 billion in the second quarter of 2010 and $893 million in the third quarter last year. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were $253 million for the most recent quarter, compared to $229 million in the second quarter of 2010 and $119 million in the third quarter of 2009. Sales of the company’s microcontroller, RF, analog & sensor, networking and multimedia product groups were all up compared to the prior quarter, while cellular and ‘other’ product sales were comparatively lower.
Cypress Semiconductor announced that revenue for the 2010 third quarter was $231,9 million, up 4,0% from $223,0 million for the prior quarter, and up 29,8% from $178,7 million for the year-ago period. The company recorded GAAP net income of $34,4 million in the 2010 third quarter, or diluted earnings per share of $0,18. This compares with last quarter’s diluted earnings per share of $0,10 and a diluted net loss per share in the year-ago third quarter of $0,13.
Ramtron reported total revenue of $19,9 million for the third quarter of 2010, compared with $11,6 million reported for the same quarter of 2009. Third quarter product revenue was $19,7 million, compared with product revenue of $11,3 million reported for the same quarter last year. Third quarter net income was $342 000, or $0,01 per share, compared with $131 000, or $0,01 per share, for the same quarter a year earlier.
Xilinx announced second quarter fiscal 2011 sales of $619,7 million, up 4% sequentially and up 49% from the second quarter of the prior fiscal year. Second quarter fiscal 2011 net income was $170,9 million, or $0,65 per diluted share. The company’s board of directors announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0,16 per outstanding share of common stock.
Altera reported third quarter sales of $527,5 million, up 12% from the second quarter of 2010 and up 84% from the third quarter of 2009. New product sales increased 24% sequentially. Third quarter net income was $217,5 million, $0,69 per diluted share, compared with net income of $180,6 million, $0,58 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2010 and $56,7 million, $0,19 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2009.
Companies
Power Integrations announced a strategic investment in SemiSouth Laboratories, a manufacturer of high-voltage silicon-carbide (SiC) semiconductor devices. PI’s commitment of $30 million, which includes an equity investment in SemiSouth, a technology licence and other financial commitments, will aid in driving adoption of SemiSouth’s SiC technology, which enables efficient power conversion for solar and wind inverters, hybrid/electric vehicles and other applications that benefit from high energy efficiency.
Industry
The EDA Consortium announced that the electronic design automation (EDA) industry revenue for Q2 2010 was $1222,9 million, an 8,7% increase compared to $1125,5 million in Q2 2009. Sequential EDA revenue declined 1,9%, while the four-quarters moving average, which compares the most recent four quarters to the prior four quarters, increased by 0,1%. Companies that were tracked employed 25 968 professionals in Q2 2010, down 0,5% compared to Q1 2010, and down 1,3% from the 26 298 employed in Q2 2009.
Mentor Graphics announced that its embedded Nucleus real-time operating system (RTOS) has again topped worldwide adoption in the mobile handset market with use in over 2,345 billion devices, according to VisionMobile’s 100 Million Club research report. The 100 Million Club is a watch-list of software companies whose products have been embedded in more than 100 million cellular handsets. The growing demand for Android-based devices and multi-OS on multicore development is a factor in the increased adoption of RTOSs, particularly for products beyond mobile handsets.
Following a decline of over 14% in 2009, the world market for power management and driver ICs is forecast to recover fully in 2010, growing by 20% to over $12 billion. Strong annual growth is projected for the next four years, according to the latest analysis from IMS Research. All 16 of the power IC markets analysed in 2010 have outperformed previous growth predictions. Strong growth is projected to continue into 2011 and for most products through to 2014, driven by strong forecast demand in applications such as lighting, PC notebooks, servers and cellular infrastructure. Whilst demand for end equipment certainly accelerated in 2010, this research indicates that there is also an element of over-spending, which has been driven by low capacity causing the lead times for many components to be extended. This has inflated revenue growth and also helped to stabilise average selling prices.
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