South Africa
Ellies Holdings achieved strong growth during its most recently completed financial year, with overall revenue up 14% and net profit after tax up 33%, to R94,2 million. The group’s earnings improvement of 34,7% translated into an EPS (earnings per share) growth of 20,2%.
Overseas
Business
Mouser Electronics recorded a 24% increase in global second-quarter sales this year. In Asia, China and the Americas, the company continues to grow at nearly 20%, with the strongest growth in Europe where 2011 sales are up 71%. Mouser posted gains of well over that 71% in Germany, France, Sweden and Spain; followed by gains of over 65% in the UK, Italy and the Netherlands.
RF Micro Devices reported financial results for its fiscal 2012 first quarter, ended 2 July 2011. The company’s quarterly revenue increased sequentially to $214,2 million, primarily as a result of double-digit sequential growth in the company’s core business, which more than offset a decline in sales of legacy transceiver products. On a GAAP basis, gross margin equalled 36,5%, quarterly operating income totalled $14,9 million, and quarterly net income was $8,9 million, or $0,03 per diluted share.
Austriamicrosystems’ second quarter group revenues were 57,9 million Euros, up 12% from 51,7 million Euros in the same quarter last year. Second quarter revenues increased 5% sequentially compared to the first quarter. Group revenues for the first half of 2011 were 113,0 million Euros, up 18% from 95,7 million Euros recorded in the first half of 2010. EBIT for the second quarter was 7,6 million Euros, compared to 5,3 million Euros in the second quarter of 2010.
Companies
Microsemi has made a proposal to the board of directors of Zarlink Semiconductor to acquire all of the outstanding shares of the company for CAD $3,35 (Canadian dollars) per share in cash. The proposed transaction has a total equity value of USD $548,7 million based on a fully diluted share count and represents a 40% premium to Zarlink’s share price as of 19 July 2011. Zarlink designs mixed-signal semiconductor products for a range of communications and medical applications. The company offers more than 900 active products and ships approximately 100 million ICs per year to over 400 customers.
C&K Components has expanded its switch product offering with the acquisition of Comax Industrial. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Comax manufactures more than 250 million parts annually for a wide variety of applications. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Maxim has acquired SensorDynamics for an undisclosed sum. SensorDynamics is a privately held Austrian semiconductor company that develops proprietary sensor and micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) solutions.
Murata and Renesas Electronics have signed a basic agreement to transfer Renesas’ high-power amplifier (HPA) business, and its manufacturing site in Japan, to Murata. The companies plan to conclude a definitive agreement of this business transfer, which is scheduled to be completed by 1 January 2012.
Industry
Databeans expects that optoelectronics will remain the fifth largest semiconductor market by global sales behind memory, logic, analog and microprocessors with $22,5 billion in projected 2011 revenue. LEDs will remain the largest and fastest growing individual product within the optoelectronics market with global sales reaching $8,4 billion. Over the next five years, sales of LEDs will continue to grow at an average rate of 18% annually, more than doubling to $23,3 billion by 2016. The other major product in the optoelectronics segment, image sensors, will reach $7,4 billion in 2011. This growth is thanks primarily to CMOS sensor technology, which lends itself to the development of low-cost, high-volume camera phones.
Smart metering will account for over 40% of the 400 million M2M connected devices by 2016, according to a new Juniper Research report. While revenues per connection lag behind those of other M2M segments, the increasing volume of smart meter deployment means that this area of the broader M2M market will create a significant revenue stream in its own right. The research also predicts that annual revenues from M2M services will exceed $35 billion by 2016.
Asia Pacific photovoltaic markets are set to grow rapidly and are projected to account for approximately one quarter of global demand by 2015, up from 11% in 2010, according to research from Solarbuzz. The top five markets in this region – China, Japan, India, Australia and South Korea – are projected to account for 3,3 GW of demand in 2011, with China and Japan leading the region. Following the establishment of a manufacturing base that now accounts for approximately 50% of global production, China is stimulating its domestic demand through both national and provincial programmes, which will cause its market to expand in 2011 by up to 174% over its 2010 level.
Technology
Researchers at Stanford University have opened up myriad opportunities for potential electronic applications with the invention of a transparent, highly flexible lithium-ion battery. Since key active materials in batteries cannot yet be made transparent or replaced with transparent alternatives, the researchers ensured that the requisite non-transparent components were too small to be seen by the naked eye. Light transmittance tests showed a 62% transparency in visible light, and approximately 60% transparency even with three full cells stacked on top of each other. The transparent battery is comparable in cost to regular batteries on the market today, but is only about half as powerful as similarly sized lithium-ion counterparts.
Fraunhofer Institute scientists have developed a wireless networking technology using LEDs which also serve to light a room. They were able to transfer data at a rate of 100 Mbps without any losses, using LEDs in the ceiling that light up more than 10 square metres. The receiver can be placed anywhere within this radius, which is currently the maximum range. The fundamentals of visible light communication (VLC) were developed together with Siemens and France Telecom Orange Labs. The new transmission technology is suitable for locations such as hospitals or aeroplanes, where radio transmissions are not allowed.
© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd | All Rights Reserved
printer friendly version