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ST. LOUIS – Electronics provider LaBarge Inc. reported fiscal 2008 third-quarter net sales of $75.4 million, up 27% year-over-year. Net earnings rose 52% year-over-year to $4.3 million, the company said.

Net sales for the nine months ended March 30 grew 18% to $201.7 million compared to the same period in 2007. Net earnings for the period grew 21% to $10.3 million.

Bookings remained strong during the third quarter, with the largest contributions coming from the defense, industrial and natural resources market sectors, said LaBarge.

After a record level of shipments in the third quarter, backlog at March 30 was $238.06 million, down 3% sequentially, and up 16% from a year earlier.

Shipments on a variety of defense programs comprised the largest portion of revenues, accounting for 37% of net sales, compared with 39% in the previous year’s third quarter.

Shipments to industrial customers were 19% of revenues, compared to 14% in the same quarter last year. Shipments to commercial aerospace customers were 8% of revenues, compared with 5% last year. Shipments to medical customers represented 7%, versus 3% in the year-ago third quarter.

LaBarge anticipates sales and earnings in the fourth quarter to be comparable to third-quarter results.

PEMBROKE, BERMUDA – Tyco International Ltd. reported second-quarter 2008 revenue of $4.86 billion, up 8.4% year-over-year, topping company estimates.

SAN JOSE – Tessera Technologies reported total revenue for the first quarter 2008 of $59.4 million, up 21.2% year-over-year.

GAAP net income was $2.2 million, down 80.2% year-over-year, including non-cash charges of $4.5 million for stock-based compensation, $2.5 million for acquired in-process research and development, and $2.3 million for amortization of acquired intangibles.

Non-GAAP net income was $16.1 million.

“Our first quarter total revenue was driven by robust DRAM and wireless unit growth and included a favorable adjustment by one of our licensees,” said Bruce McWilliams, chairman, president and CEO for Tessera. “Demand for increased memory and functionality in both computing and consumer devices is driving broader usage of chip scale packaging in a wide range of applications. From a strategic perspective, as the features of digital still cameras and cellphones converge, we believe our platform of consumer imaging technologies is well positioned to help drive next-generation wireless devices. We believe this will generate longer-term company growth.”

Tessera guided for second-quarter revenue of $54 million to $56 million, which includes projected royalty and license fees of between $47 million and $49 million, $1 million above the company's Jan. 31 guidance.