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SINGAPORE – Contract electronics firm Venture Corp. posted a 17% fall in quarterly earnings, as a result of a stronger Singapore dollar and the delay of customers’ orders, the firm reported.

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – Hon Hai plans to invest at least $3.26 billion in Taiwan, the firm reported.

BOONTON, NJ – Total worldwide sales revenue for telecommunication gateways and session border controllers is expected to increase at a compounded rate of nearly 13% during the next five years, says Insight Research.

This specialized equipment enables traditional phone networks to interconnect with next-generation network services that make extensive use of the Internet. During 2008, nearly $2 billion worth of gateway technology will be sold in global markets. By 2013, sales of new gateway gear will increase to $3.5 billion annually, says the firm.

While global gateway sales will increase to nearly 13% during the forecast period, hybrid-fiber coax gateways, SIP gateways, and session border controllers will buck trends and are expected to exhibit sales revenue growth rates in excess of 30%, says Insight.

"The next-generation network, which will make extensive use of IP and web services is still years away from generating serious revenue, and in the meantime carriers are not about to fork lift out the infrastructure that makes them money today," said Robert Rosenberg, Insight’s president.

"Gateways form the link between today's revenue-generating services and what the carriers will be building to generate their future revenue streams, so we expect the telecommunications gateway market to continue growing for at least the next five years," Rosenberg added.

JASPER, IN – EMS provider Kimball International Inc. reported net sales of $338.2 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008, flat with the same period last year.

Gross profit was $57.9 million, down 16.1% year-over-year. The firm reported a net loss from continuing operations of $9.8 million.

YAVNE, ISRAEL – AOI equipment maker, Orbotech Ltd., has fired dozens of employees from its workforce of 800 in Israel, according to Global Online.

The firm’s LCD testing system division reportedly has been affected most because of canceled new projects.

According to the Israeli publication Global Online, the firm also will shut down its third-largest business: the IC division. The division reportedly will merge with the company’s largest division: printed circuits.

Orbotech employees 1,600 worldwide.

SAN JOSE – Tessera Technologies Inc., provider of miniaturization technologies, said Bruce McWilliams, its chairman, president and chief executive officer, has stepped down.

NUREMBERG and ARLINGTON, VA – Consumer electronics revenues in China are forecast to reach $100 billion by 2009, surpassing Western Europe and North America between 2009 and 2010, say market researcher GfK and the Consumer Electronics Association.

LONDON — The Cookson Group's first-half profits rose 30% to $225 million on a 26% jump in revenues to $2.1 billion.

The electronics group reported profits of $60 million, up 2%, year-over-year on an 11% hike in sales to $640 million. However, the higher revenue was driven by extreme price inflation for tin and silver used in solder. Excluding the inflation impact and sales of precious metals related products in the chemistry product line, underlying revenue fell 1% from last year.

All figures are based on constant exchange rates.

Cookson attributed the drop in revenue to a slowdown in electronics equipment production, particularly in the US, and a decision to focus on higher margin, more value-added product lines.

The company benefited from a new factory in Monterrey, Mexico, and demand for its scrap solder recycling operation in the US. A second recycling plant, in Guangxi Province, China, is expected to come online later this year. Cookson is also moving its European solder paste production from Ashford, England, to Hungary; the transfer should be complete by early next year and will save the company about $2 million annually.

BERWYN, PA – Tyco Electronics Ltd. is eliminating about 100 North American jobs, about half from two Pennsylvania facilities.

The firm cites diminished demand from the automotive and consumer appliance industries.

Workers from facilities in North Carolina, Michigan, Mexico and Canada also will be affected, said Tyco spokesman Mike Ratcliff, according to published reports.

The company plans to move some manufacturing from Harrisburg, PA to nearby Waynesboro, as well as Mount Sidney, VA.

The firm employs 92,000 globally and makes electrical components and telecommunications equipment.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – IPC will hold a conference on November 6 at the Wyndham Hotel DFW, Irving, TX, to discuss the details of the IPC-9592 power conversion standard: Requirements for Power Conversion Devices for the Computer and Telecommunications Industries.

The meeting will outline the process and input that went into developing this first-ever power conversion standard, which is in its final stages. The conference agenda will cover power conversion product attributes, including product specifications and document requirements; design for reliability; design and qualification testing, and manufacturing conformance testing.

The committee members for the standard will present the sessions. These volunteer members – representing Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, Dell Inc., Emerson Network Power, Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, Lineage Power and Murata Power Solutions – will describe the logic used to craft each chapter.

For more information, visit www.ipc.org/9592conference.

YAVNE, ISRAEL – Orbotech Ltd., maker of AOI equipment, said net income for the second quarter rose to $5.3 million, compared with a loss of $3.4 million in the same quarter last year.

The company attributes its swing to a profit to improved flat panel equipment sales.

Revenue was $105.1 million, up 15.7% year-over-year, Orbotech said.

Sales of flat panel display inspection equipment nearly tripled to $29.8 million, while revenue from PCB equipment fell 22.3% to $34.5 million.

HORSHAM, PA – Aegis Software Corp., developer of MOS software, appointed Brian Worrall as director of system integration and customization services.

Worrall will ensure deployments are integrated into customers’ existing software systems and will analyze customer requirements associated with integrating process planning and launch and MOS software into existing enterprise-level capabilities.

Worrall brings nearly 20 years’ experience to the position. Prior to this appointment, he was business systems analyst and programmer for Fiber-Line Inc.