FOREST GROVE, OR - Merix Corp. has agreed to buy Eastern Pacific Circuits Ltd. for $120 million cash. Merix said the acquisition of the Hong Kong-based PCB supplier includes earn-out consideration of up to $8M based on 2005 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).
Merix plans to finance the transaction, expected to close in June, with a combination of available cash and debt. Eastern Pacific has four manufacturing plants in southern China and one in Hong Kong. In 2004, Eastern Pacific's preliminary unaudited sales were $143M, with adjusted EBITDA of $14.1M.
NY, April 14 -- U.S. IT spending will increase to $417 billion in 2005 and reach $497 billion by 2008, a report from IDC reveals. According to the study, government, manufacturing, and banking continue to drive IT spending in process management and content management.
According to Anne Songtao Lu, program manager for IDC's Worldwide Vertical Markets, the consumer/home vertical has become increasingly important for IT vendors.
"We have completed testing and collected electrical and performance data that demonstrates how Sanmina-SCI's suite of design and manufacturing techniques enhances system-level interoperability," said George Dudnikov, Sr. VP and CTO for the PCB division. "The high-performance market is starting to see some forward momentum, and OEMs are beginning to recognize the performance benefits of using low-distortion interconnects in their systems, which are compatible with drivers and receivers from all major silicon manufacturers. As a result, system designers enjoy a variety of options."
The ATCA-compatible backplanes equalize the performance variations seen across major connector technologies (press-fit, SMT, BGA); dielectrics (low-cost and enhanced materials); existing and proposed industry-wide, high-performance interconnect protocols (Ethernet, XAUI, Infiniband, Fibre Channel, Compact PCT, ATCA, VXI, UXPi); modulation schemes (NRZ, PAM, multi-level signaling); and signal-conditioning schemes (passive and active driver pre-emphasis and receiver equalization).
Cost reduction has been replaced by order lead time as the top issue facing mid-size manufacturers, according to a new report. As customers eliminate inventory by asking manufacturers to be more reactive and reliable to their demands, customer service is no longer simply improving complete and on-time order performance. Mid-size manufacturers are scrambling as they recognize that their order-to-delivery processes are not capable of delivering in less time with the accuracy and cost profiles required to please customers and the CFO.
"Mid-size manufacturers now understand that their current order-to-delivery processes are nothing but a set of loosely coupled functions and not as integrated and streamlined as needed," said Chris Jones, Aberdeen Inc.'s senior VP of value chain research. "Best-in-class mid-size manufacturers have adopted end-to-end integrated order-to-delivery process and are using real-time information to accelerate the velocity of their business."
The report finds manufacturers that move from a loosely coupled set of department or functions to a tightly synchronized order-to-delivery process are 2.5 times more likely to have the shortest lead times. Far too many mid-size manufacturers mistakenly believe that an end-to-end integrated process does a better job at passing information between the functional operations. Only 20% of respondents had end-to-end processes in place and only 14% had integrated, real-time IT solutions.
To optimize order-to-delivery performance, Jones recommends:
-- Understand the difference between an integrated process and connected pieces.
-- Get started by picking the top three functions to integrate.
-- Automate and use workflow to drive velocity.
-- Extend order-to-delivery to the supply base.
-- Drive order-to-delivery performance with real-time information
Download a copy here: www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/benchmark/RA_MidSizeMfg_CJ.asp
"The demand for our sockets has increased to the level where we'd now like to have complete control over manufacturing," said Zaid Ayoub, president. "We have customers that need custom sockets as well as quick turn sockets, and having control over the capacity, materials and quality will give us the ability to respond immediately with reliable sockets."
The facility will accommodate extreme fine pitch for next generation packages.
The company has hired Donald Hayes as manufacturing manager of the new division.
Binghamton, NY -- A Texas court has entered final judgement in favor of Universal Instruments Corp., a subsidiary of Dover Corp., following a three-week jury trial in Houston. All 17 claims of the asserted software patent were found invalid and not infringed.
According to Universal, the suit, filed in 2002, is one of an increasing number of patent cases brought by companies whose primary business model is licensing and litigation of patent assets—typically, with the assistance of contingency fee lawyers. In this case, the plaintiffs alleged that the GSM Platform for surface mount placement of components on PCBs infringed U.S. Patent 5,283,943. The plaintiffs waived their right to appeal in return for Universal's agreement not to seek costs or attorney fees.
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