South Africa
For its financial year ended 30 September 2011, Reunert’s revenue improved by 2% to R10,9 billion and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 10% to R1,5 billion. Operating profit also rose by 10% to R1,4 billion, while profit attributable to ordinary equity holders increased drastically by 49% to R1,3 billion. Headline earnings on a per share basis were up by 18% to 598,3 cps.
Absa recently announced the launch of South Africa’s first live user trial of near field communication (NFC) technology enabling mobile phones as payment devices. The trial kicked off in mid-December and involves 500 of the bank’s own staff members, operating in a live commercial environment. While this trial will only facilitate low-value payments in retail and transit in early stages, Absa envisions many more exciting new forms of mobile payment in the future.
Philips has announced a major deal to distribute 200 000 LED lamps in South Africa, in collaboration with Eskom and Karebo Systems. The Philips MasterLED lamps are being offered at discounted prices throughout South Africa to professional users of lighting, such as hotels, banks, offices and retail outlets. The programme is aimed at replacing 50 W halogen bulbs with 7 W or 10 W LED lamps, resulting in an estimated average annual saving per lamp of 280 kWh of electricity. Cumulatively, the deal could save 58 GWh per year, equivalent to R41 million, as well as reducing CO2 emissions by 60 000 tons.
Four leading renewable energy associations announced their intention to launch an umbrella body to act as a single voice championing the importance and relevance of the renewable energy industry in South Africa. The announcement comes in the wake of the Green Economy Accord recently concluded through a series of engagements amongst government, business, labour and community at Nedlac. The founding participants are the South African Solar Thermal Industry Association (SASTELA), Sustainable Energy Society of Southern Africa (SESSA), the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA) and the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA). The four proponent organisations indicate that the umbrella body will provisionally be called the South African Renewable Energy Council.
The design for a sustainable wind generator using redundant materials has earned a prestigious international award for Hartmut Jagau, a master’s student in electrical engineering at the University of Cape Town. Jagau won the Student Poster Presentation award at the 2011 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Energy Conversion Congress & Exposition that was held in Arizona, USA, towards the end of last year. His design reuses the permanent magnets from discarded hard drives to create a sustainable wind generator. This research is part of ongoing work in the Advanced Machines and Energy Systems Research Group in the Department of Electrical Engineering at UCT.
Overseas
Business
Analog Devices announced financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal year ended 29 October 2011. Revenue for the quarter was $716 million, a 6% decrease from the immediately prior quarter and a 7% decrease from the same period one year ago. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) from continuing operations were $0,60, compared to $0,71 in the immediately prior quarter and $0,73 in the same period one year ago. For the year, revenue was $3,0 billion, an 8% increase from $2,8 billion recorded in fiscal 2010. Diluted EPS from continuing operations was $2,79, compared to $2,33 in fiscal 2010.
For its first quarter of fiscal 2012, which ended 1 December 2011, Micron Technology had a net loss attributable to shareholders of $187 million, or $0,19 per diluted share, on net sales of $2,1 billion. This compares to a net loss of $135 million, or $0,14 per diluted share, on net sales of $2,1 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011, and net income of $155 million, or $0,15 per diluted share, on net sales of $2,3 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2011.
Avago Technologies’ net revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 was a record $623 million, an increase of 3% compared with the previous quarter, and up 9% from the same quarter last year. Net income was $154 million, or $0,61 per diluted share. This compares with net income of $144 million, or $0,57 per diluted share last quarter, and net income of $164 million, or $0,66 per diluted share in the same quarter last year. For the full year, net revenue grew 12% to $2,3 billion when compared to fiscal year 2010. GAAP net income was $552 million, or $2,19 per diluted share. This compares with GAAP net income of $415 million, or $1,69 per diluted share in fiscal year 2010.
Companies
Analog Devices has been named one of the world’s most innovative companies, according to the Thomson Reuters 2011 Top 100 Global Innovator SM programme. The programme analyses patent data and related metrics in a proprietary methodology to identify the organisations that lead the world in innovation activity. Analog Devices was one of 14 semiconductor and electronic component manufacturers named to the top 100, and the only analog company on the list of global innovators.
RS Components has won ‘Best eCommerce Marketing Initiative’ at the eCommerce Awards for Excellence 2011. The award was presented for the company’s successful search engine marketing (SEM) strategy. RS was also highly commended in the ‘International e-Retail Award’ and ‘Best Customer Service Award’ categories. The company’s eCommerce revenue grew by around 27% in the first half of the group’s financial year and now represents around 54% of group sales.
Agilent Technologies has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Accelicon Technologies, a provider of device-level modelling and validation software for the electronics industry. The transaction, the exact details of which are unconfirmed, is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed in the first calendar quarter of 2012.
Telit Wireless Solutions has entered into a binding agreement to purchase Navman Wireless OEM Solutions, a leading designer and manufacturer of world-class GPS modules and solutions, for $3 million in cash. This latest Telit acquisition comes on the heels of its March 2011 acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ m2m business and its July 2011 acquisition of GlobalConect, an m2m services and connectivity business.
Linear Technology recently announced the acquisition of Dust Networks, a provider of low-power wireless sensor network (WSN) technology. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Cypress Semiconductor announced that Avago Technologies has dropped its lawsuit against Cypress. The lawsuit had claimed that Cypress’s OvationONS products infringed on Avago optical navigation patents. OvationONS products enable finger navigation in handheld devices. Cypress paid no damages and admitted to no infringement in the case. Cypress uses its own, patented OptiCheck technology, which the company has invested tens of millions of dollars to develop, in the OvationONS products.
Industry
Maxim has joined 11 other companies in the smart grid industry to form a new global partnership, the G3-PLC Alliance. The alliance was created to support the deployment of the G3-PLC powerline communications protocol, originally developed by Maxim. G3-PLC has been adopted by multiple international standards (ITU, IEEE and CENELEC), independently tested by dozens of organisations worldwide, and implemented by several major international OEMs.
Chip inventories held by semiconductor suppliers declined in the third quarter of 2011, putting a halt to the steady expansion of the previous seven quarters, as the industry cut production in order to reduce oversupply. As calculated by the days of inventory (DOI) measure, semiconductor stockpiles in the third quarter stood at 81 days, down a modest 2,5% from 83 days in the second quarter, according to an IHS iSuppli report. Despite the inventory cutback, DOI in the third quarter remained elevated in absolute terms – the highest of the last 10 quarters, dating all the way back to the fourth quarter of 2008 – suggesting that stockpiles are still quite high. Moreover, the percentage of oversupply during the period rose to 12,1%, resulting in expectations that inventories will be trimmed further in the fourth quarter of 2011.
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) announced worldwide sales of semiconductors were $25,1 billion for the month of November 2011, a decrease of 2,4% from the prior month when sales were $25,7 billion. On a year to date basis, worldwide semiconductor sales are 0,8% higher compared to the same period last year. All monthly sales numbers represent a three-month moving average. Despite the near term supply chain and global economic challenges, the industry is still poised to close 2011 with growth.
The IEEE 802.15.4 IC market will grow to over $1,1 billion in 2016 - up from just $90 million in 2010, according to ABI Research. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is still a key adoption market and there is significant impetus behind the continuation of this market. The home entertainment market has also seen significant uptake, helping to drive up shipment numbers over the past 12 months or so with the development and adoption of ZigBee RF4CE.
The global power semiconductor market will grow by just 5% in 2012 to $32 billion, according to IMS Research which has cut its previous forecast of more than 8% due to global economic uncertainties and inventory being flushed from the supply chain. The market, which grew by 37% in 2010 (much of which was recovery-related) but just 3,7% in 2011, is however forecast to return to double-digit growth in 2013.
Technology
A team of researchers at the University of Notre Dame in the USA has developed an inexpensive ‘solar paint’ that uses semiconducting nanoparticles to produce energy. Able to be applied to any conductive surface without special equipment, the best light-to-energy conversion efficiency the paint has reached so far is 1%, which is well behind the usual 10% to 15% efficiency of commercial silicon solar cells, somewhat mitigating the fact that it can be made cheaply and in large quantities.
IDT has developed and demonstrated the world’s first commercially available oscillators incorporating piezoelectric micro-electromechanical system (pMEMS) resonators. The oscillators take advantage of the pMEMS resonator’s high native frequencies, making them well suited to replace traditional quartz-based oscillators in any application. Not visible to the naked eye, the pMEMS resonator is the world’s smallest hermetically-sealed wafer level package (WLP) resonator, making it a fitting replacement for larger quartz-based resonators.
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