South Africa
New South African distributor, IPD Electronics, has secured the rights to distribute the products of the EDAC Group in the country. EDAC’s product range includes RJ45 modular and magnetic jacks, card edge, rack and panel and E-Seal IP67 sealed connectors, alongside the MH Connectors brand of D-Subs and hoods/backshells. IPD director Jurgen Kruger is optimistic that this move will serve as a stepping stone towards positioning the company as a serious player in the South African interconnect markertplace.
Vepac Electronics has moved premises to 1 Electron Street (corner Galaxy Street), Linbro Business Park. As a result, its contact details have changed to +27 (0)11 454 8053 (landline), +27 (0)11 454 8044 (fax), +27 (0)81 241 6709/ 240 8082 (office cell).
Overseas
Business
Linear Technology reported financial results for the fiscal quarter ended 28 December 2014. Quarterly revenues of $352,6 million for the second quarter of fiscal year 2015 increased by $18,0 million or 5,4% over the second quarter of fiscal year 2014 but decreased by $18,5 million or 5,0% from the previous quarter. Similarly, net income of $123,6 million increased by $18,9 million or 18,0% over the second quarter of fiscal year 2014 but decreased by $5,9 million from the first quarter of fiscal year 2015.
ams provided good and bad news for investors as it pre-announced revenues for its fourth quarter of 2014 will exceed expectations, coming in at 139 million Euros, above the upper end of previous guidance of 133-138 million Euros. The company also expects first quarter 2015 revenues to grow quarter-on-quarter, contrary to typical seasonality, but has warned that its operating profitability will take a knock in 2014’s fourth quarter, with operating (EBIT) margin expected to be around 23%, below previously communicated guidance. This comes primarily as a result of the faster than expected addition of over 40 design engineers and an additional design centre as part of large-scale R&D expansion.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of electronic chips, recorded record net income of NT$79,99 billion and diluted earnings per share of NT$3,08 for its fourth quarter of 2014, a staggering 78,5% year-on-year improvement. The company attributed the corresponding growth in revenue (a 52,6% increase to NT$222,52 billion) largely to its accelerated 20 nm wafer production capabilities.
For the second quarter of its fiscal 2015 year, Cree announced revenue of $413,2 million, down marginally from the $415,1 million reported in the same period the previous year. Net income for the second quarter was $12,2 million, or $0,10 per diluted share, a decrease of 66% year-over-year.
Intel reported record full-year 2014 revenue of $55,9 billion (up 6%), operating income of $15,3 billion, net income of $11,7 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of $2,31. This revenue growth was driven primarily by its data centre and Internet-of-Things (IoT) business units with respective gains of 18% and 19% annually, as well as its PC client group which, despite growing by only 4%, continued to be far and away the company’s biggest market segment at $34,7 billion. The software and services operating segments also grew (by 1%) leaving the mobile and communications group as the odd one out with a sharp 85% decline to $202 million.
Companies
Sierra Wireless signalled its intention to spread out across the machine-to-machine (M2M) communications value chain with its upcoming acquisition of connectivity and data management services specialist, Wireless Maingate. The transaction, valued at US$90 million in cash, is expected to close in February 2015. Maingate already has 500 customers across Europe, with a subscriber base of more than 500 000 connected devices, giving Sierra the confidence that this acquisition will be immediately accretive to earnings.
Analog Devices announced that its recently acquired product range of Hittite Microwave products is now available for sale through the company’s global distribution network. Franchised distributors now carry more than 1000 Hittite products covering RF, microwave, millimetre-wave ICs and module solutions spanning the entire frequency spectrum to 110 GHz, from antenna to bits and back.
Infineon Technologies announced the closing of its acquisition of International Rectifier (IR). With immediate effect, IR has become part of Infineon following the approval of all necessary regulatory authorities and IR’s shareholders. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to pro-forma earnings per share in Infineon’s current fiscal year.
Industry
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) announced that worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $29,7 billion for the month of November 2014, an increase of 9,1% from the November 2013 total but a slight decrease of 0,1% from the October 2014 total. Year-to-date sales through November were 10% higher than they were at the same point in 2013. Regionally, year-to-year sales for the month of November increased in the Asia Pacific (12,3%), the Americas (11,1%), and Europe (3,4%), but decreased in Japan (-4,5%). Sales were higher across all regions through November than they were through the same point last year.
In 2014, the Chinese government described new semiconductor industry programmes that will utilise investment by both the Chinese national government ($19,5 billion) and local government and private equity investors ($97,4 billion). Market research firm IC Insights believes that these outlays have the potential to significantly change the future IC supplier landscape. There were nine Chinese companies among the top 50 fabless companies in 2014 as compared to only one in 2009, representing twice as much top 50 fabless IC market share as the European and Japanese companies combined.
Technology
Scientists at Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne (EPFL) are developing a cure for paralysis using flexible electronic circuits. Their e-Dura implant, which employs a combination of electrical and chemical stimulation, has been successful in getting paralysed mice to walk, and crucially avoids rejection and inflammation in the host by mimicking the mechanical properties of living tissue. Ultimately, it is hoped this could serve as the basis for therapy on humans paralysed following spinal cord injury. The electronic elements can not only stimulate the spinal cord at the point of injury, but can also be used to monitor electrical impulses from the brain in real time.
Nvidia, a leading visual computing vendor, took the wraps off a small chip with a big claim to fame: the Tegra X1, designed to be small enough for compact applications such as tablet computers and portable gaming, has more horsepower than the world’s fastest supercomputer of 15 years ago. Powered by its 256 GPU cores, it achieves more than a teraflop of processing power and 16-bit floating point, and is able to stream 4K video at 60 Hz, all while consuming less than 10 Watts.
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