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SHANGHAI -- Hon Hai will relocate tens of thousands of employees to lower-costs Chinese cities to take advantage of tax benefits and cut costs, according to published reports.

In order to cut operating costs by 20%, Hon Hai (Foxconn) will move up to 160,000 workers from a campus in Shenzhen farther inland to Wuhan and Jincheng, China Tech News said.

TAIPEI -- Foxconn has landed a contract to build the next-generation Apple iMac.

Digitimes is reporting Apple chose Foxconn over Quanta to produce some 800,000 units per month of the all-in-one PC.

Foxconn is also reportedly in the running to nab a deal with Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 smartphone. Other companies still bidding for the program include Pegatron, the manufacturing arm of Asus, and a third undisclosed firm.

The Xperia X1 contractor, HTC, is out of the running, the report claimed,.

STOCKHOLM -- NOTE AB, a top 50 EMS provider, will lay off 100 workers, mostly in Sweden, in response to decreased demand, the company said. The company will take fourth-quarter charges of 50 million kronors ($6.43 million) to cover the layoff costs.

LOS ALTOS, CA – Global electronic equipment revenues will fall 2.2% in 2009, before rebounding to 6.7% growth in 2010, according to a new forecast by Henderson Ventures.

The firm estimates 2008 will show a 1.2% gain, lower than previous forecasts.

According to Henderson, the US will take a 4.4% hit in 2009, then recover 4.3% in 2010. Japan will fall 5.3%, then rebound to 4.6% growth in 2010. Western Europe will decline 6% in 2009, then grow 3.8% in 2010.

China is an exception: It will grow 2.3% in 2009 and 10.1% in 2010.

Declines in commodity prices in 2009 should permit some equipment manufacturers to maintain profitability, Henderson says.

Mobile markets will be hard hit, with cutbacks expected for previously planned 3G rollouts. Overall, handsets sales are predicted to decline 3.2% in 2009, then rebound 10.3% in 2010.

ST. LOUIS -- To date, EMS provider LaBarge Inc. had largely stayed out of the acquisition game.

The company ended that streak today, announcing a deal for Pensar Electronic Solutions for $45 million, subject to certain adjustments.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — Global notebook PC shipments exceeded those of desktops on a quarterly basis for the first time ever in the third quarter, according to iSuppli Corp.

EDGEWOOD, NY -- Dynatech Technology, the exclusive US distributor of Samsung SMT assembly equipment, is relocating its corporate headquarters, order processing and logistic operations from Horsham, PA, to Edgewood, NY.

The company will add warehouse and office staff to handle the increased business seen over the past year as well.
The Horsham office will remain open as a regional sales center.

"Shifting our sales support, order entry and warehousing functions to our New York facility allows us to take full advantage of our extensive resources," said Michael Foster, general manager, Dynatech Technology, in a statement. "Our office and warehouse staff has increased threefold with the change. The increased warehouse space, staff and office infrastructure in Edgewood enables us to expand our operation in a single location for faster response time to customer requests in a more efficient manner."

SANTA CLARA, CA – Viking Automation Tools has signed an agreement for the exclusive service and installation rights of Nippon Scientific Co. Ltd.’s semiconductor failure analysis systems in the US, Mexico and Canada. No financial terms of the agreement were disclosed.

NSC manufactures semiconductor failure analysis equipment and has developed equipment from wet and dry IC decapsulation, reactive ion etching, micro-milling and laser IC preparation systems to testing equipment.

Viking is a manufacturing and engineering design company specializing in automation tools.

SAN JOSE – North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $805.4 million in orders in November, down 29% year-over-year, and down about 4% sequentially, says SEMI.

The three-month average of worldwide billings was $807.3 million, down 42% year-over-year and 7% sequentially.

The book-to-bill ratio was 1.0, meaning $100 worth of orders was received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

“The book-to-bill ratio reached parity, as billings have declined sharper than bookings over the past six months,” said Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI. “2008 is closing with expected declines on the year, which have been further exacerbated by the deepening seismic global economic situation over the past quarter.”

REDMOND, WA – Programming-device maker Data I/O Corp. will buy back up to 1 million of the company’s shares in the coming year.

In 2009, the firm will purchase shares on the open market, in blocks or privately.

Almost 9 million shares are currently outstanding, says Data I/O.

FRAMINGHAM, MA -- The electronics manufacturing services industry is expected to grow 7.8% next year to $313.7 billion, says IDC. This is down slightly from growth of 9.3% in 2008, the research firm says, citing slowing end-market demand for the drop.

GUADALAJARA, MEXICO – Jabil Circuit has reportedly opened its second production plant here, according to local reports. However, despite the report, by the Guadalajara Reporter, the company has not made public statements about any expansions.