South Africa
• Following the sale of its Commercial Products (Compart) business to former CEO, Dr Andre Fourie, Poynting Holdings recorded a 101% increase in turnover for continuing operations for the six months ended 31 December 2014. The company is now separated into two entities – African Union Communications (Aucom) and Defence & Specialised (DS) – the latter of which is in the process of acquiring Antenna Research Associates of the USA to establish a footprint in that country.
Overseas
Business
• TSMC announced consolidated revenue of NT$222,03 billion, net income of NT$78,99 billion, and diluted earnings per share of NT$3,05 for the first quarter of 2015. Year-over-year, first quarter revenue increased 49,8% while net income and diluted EPS both increased 65,0%. Compared to fourth quarter 2014, first quarter results represent a 0,2% decrease in revenue, a 1,2% decrease in net income and a 1,3% decline in EPS.
• For its full-year 2014, u-blox achieved consolidated revenue of 270 million Swiss Francs in 2014, a growth of 22,9% compared to 2013. Net profit also increased – by 39,6% from 24,6 million Swiss Francs to 34,4 million Swiss Francs, representing a 12,7% net profit margin for 2014.
Companies
• Royal Philips took a firm step toward the planned divestiture of its Lumileds LED manufacturing business, with the announcement that it will sell an 80,1% stake in its combined LED components and automotive lighting unit. Footing the estimated $2,8 billion bill will be an international investment consortium led by GO Scale Capital. All being well, the transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2015.
• Strengthening its basis for supporting next-generation 5G wireless technology, National Instruments has announced its acquisition of BEEcube, a supplier of high-performance FPGA prototyping and deployment products for advanced wireless research, wireless infrastructure and military/defence applications. BEEcube will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary under its own brand, and the acquisition is not material to NI’s consolidated financial statements.
• Microsemi has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Vitesse for $5,28 per share through a cash tender offer. The total transaction value is approximately $389 million and is expected to be $0,16 to $0,20 per share accretive in its first full fiscal year ending 30 September 2016.
• Molex has expanded its fibre-optic technology platform following the recent acquisition of Oplink Communications. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Koch Industries, Molex will now manage Oplink, a provider of optical communication components, intelligent modules and subsystems for a wide variety of customer applications.
Industry
• Figures compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organisation show that worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $27,8 billion for the month of February 2015, an increase of 6,7% from February 2014. Global sales from February 2015 were 2,7% lower than the January 2015 total, reflecting seasonal trends. Regionally, year-to-year sales increased in the Americas (17,1%) and Asia Pacific (7,6%), but decreased in Europe (-2,0%) and Japan (-8,8%).
• Osram Opto Semiconductors has teamed up with five other German organisations from industry and research fields on a project called InteGreat, with the aim of researching new approaches to the production of high-efficiency light emitting diodes along the entire production process, to remove the boundaries between the individual value-added stages and as a result to create new functionality and high flexibility.
• Microchip Technology announced that BMW is continuing to broaden the proliferation of MOST technology in its vehicle infotainment networks, using Microchip’s Intelligent Network Interface Controllers (INICs). The BMW 2 Series Active Tourer is BMW’s latest volume car model to implement MOST technology, following the company’s wide deployment among its premium models, which began in 2001. To date, more than 150 million MOST devices have been installed in over 180 car models since 2001.
Technology
• Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre has developed a method for printing memory circuits directly onto consumer packaging. The write-once-read-many (WORM) memories can be fabricated directly on the product or packaging using flexographic or inkjet printing machines. The memory is based on sintering of metallic nanoparticles using an electric current; a low voltage of a few volts is sufficient for the writing of the memory. Because the sintering of nanoparticles is non-reversible, the data content of the memory can only be written once. VTT researchers envisage uses for inexpensive WORM memories in sensor applications, product originality marking, playing cards, interactive packaging and product information cards (e.g. user surveys).
• Scientists at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) have made a breakthrough in supercapacitor technology which provides energy density on the order of a lead-acid battery. They developed a technique which uses a standard LighScribe DVD drive to print special electrodes composed of an expanded network of graphene – a one-atom-thick layer of graphitic carbon – that shows excellent mechanical and electrical properties as well as a large surface area. This may be an important development in bridging the gap between the relatively high energy densities of batteries and the fast charge and discharge of supercapacitors – as much as 1000 times faster than batteries.
• Stanford University scientists claim to have invented the first high-performance aluminium battery that offers a safer alternative than many commercial batteries in wide use today. Their invention is made from cheap materials – an anode made of aluminium, a cathode made of graphite, and an ionic liquid electrolyte, packaged inside a flexible polymer – coated pouch. Most significantly, it overcomes previous aluminium-ion batteries’ limited charge/discharge cycle capacity, and can reportedly be charged in only one second.
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