ATLANTA, GA – East West Manufacturing is receiving an undisclosed investment from MSD Partners.

NEEDHAM, MA – Worldwide smartphone shipments were 362.4 million during the fourth quarter, down 3.2% year-over-year, according to International Data Corp, the second straight quarter of negative growth.

On an annual basis, the market grew 5.7% in 2021, with 1.35 billion smartphones shipped, thanks to a strong first half.

NEEDHAM, MA – Worldwide tablet shipments amounted to 46 million units during the fourth quarter, down 11.9% year-over-year, posting a decline for the second time since the pandemic began in 2020, according to International Data Corp.

SPOKANE VALLEY, WA – Key Tronic posted fiscal second quarter revenue of $134.5 million, up 5% year-over-year.

PEACHTREE CITY, GA – PCB East today announced the international electronics industry consultant Gene Weiner, fresh off a trip across the Atlantic where he visited several emerging companies, will keynote this year’s conference. Weiner’s talk, “From Possibility to Reality,” will paint a picture of exciting possibilities in additive manufacturing, materials, equipment, components and other developments that may be in full swing in the next few years.

BANNOCKBURN, IL — In recognition and acknowledgment of his contributions to IPC and the electronics industry, Joe O’Neil, OAA Ventures, was presented with the IPC Raymond E. Pritchard Hall of Fame Award.

BANGKOK – Fabrinet reported fiscal second quarter revenue of $566.6 million, up 24.9% year-over-year.

SAN JOSE – Sanmina reported fiscal first quarter net sales of $1.76 billion, an increase of 0.12% year-over-year.

ATLANTA – The results from ECIA’s January electronic component sales sentiment survey, while not as strong as anticipated, point to a solid start to the new year, with the overall sales sentiment index registering 116.5 for January, slightly up from the prior month’s results, says ECIA.

PARIS -- An ICAPE Group subsidiary has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of Cebisa France, a printed circuit board supplier based in Lisses.

NOIDA, INDIA – Electronics manufacturer Dixon Technologies reported fiscal third quarter revenue of Rs 30.7 billion (US$409.7 million), up 9.6% sequentially, according to reports.

It took longer than expected, but only by a couple weeks. PCEA is now the owner of a number of publications, websites, educational events and trade shows for printed circuit engineers.

In January, we completed the acquisition of several longtime and popular brands from UP Media Group, including PCD&F, CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY, the PCB2Day webinar series, the Printed Circuit University online education platform, the PCB Chat podcast series, and of course, the leading technical conferences and trade shows for design engineers: PCB West and PCB East. It’s the latter one I’ll look at today.

Last month’s discussion focused on training opportunities. We looked at developments at the college level and new certification programs like the Printed Circuit Engineering Professional course offered by PCE-EDU, the brainchild of a team of veteran design engineers led by Mike Creeden and Rick Hartley.

This month, we dive into the upcoming PCB East technical conference. For the uninitiated, PCB East is the Eastern US version of the popular PCB West trade show. It debuted in the 2000s, then went on hiatus after the industry downturn in 2007-08. At the urging of several companies and individual design engineers, it was set to return last year, until the pandemic got in the way.