BISIE, CONGO – Congolese rebel soldiers are running national tin mines and causing havoc with consumer electronics firms intent on following best practices for corporate humanitarianism.

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EL SEGUNDO, CA – Total worldwide PC shipments in the fourth quarter amounted to 76.2 million units, up 11.7% sequentially and up 14.2% compared to the same quarter in 2006.
 
The quarter was strong for top-tier U.S. PC brands, with Hewlett-Packard padding its dominance in the global market, Dell showing signs of a resurgence and Apple coming on strong, according to iSuppli Corp.
 
In the fourth quarter, H-P’s global PC shipments rose to 14.6 million units, up 25.5% year-over-year, says the research firm. It marked the sixth straight quarter H-P led the worldwide PC shipments rankings.
 
“Hewlett-Packard has capitalized on its strong channel presence and its strength in the fast-growing notebook PC segment, allowing it to attain and maintain market leadership,” said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for iSuppli.
 
Dell saw its fortunes improve considerably in the quarter, with shipments of 11.3 million units, up 17.4% year-over-year. This compares to 1.5% growth during the third quarter. Dell’s shipments were up 14.1% sequentially, the largest percentage increase among the top six brands, says iSuppli.
 
Apple ranked No. 6, a position the company has held since the third quarter of 2007. The company’s total fourth-quarter PC shipments grew 39.3% year-over-year, with equally strong growth for its desktop and notebook businesses.
 
As a result of its acquisition of Gateway in the fourth quarter, Acer achieved the No. 3 ranking, moving ahead of Lenovo. Incorporating shipments from Gateway, Acer shipped 7.2 million PCs in the fourth quarter, representing year-over-year growth of 25% on a combined basis. Lenovo shipped 5.8 million units, and in the process achieved a year-over-year growth rate of 21.3%, according to iSuppli.
 
Toshiba maintained its position as the fifth-largest PC OEM on a worldwide basis, shipping 3.1 million units, up 25.3% year-over-year.
 
H-P achieved the No. 1 shipment ranking for 2007, knocking rival Dell from the top spot. H-P shipped 49.6 million PCs in 2007, a 29.7% increase, more than double the growth rate achieved by the whole PC market, says the firm.
 
Dell achieved 2007 PC shipments of 39.7 million, up 1.7%. H-P and Dell achieved market shares of 18.5% and 14.8% respectively for the year.
 
Apple’s unit shipments grew 33.6% in 2007, giving the company a 2.8% share of the global market.
 
On the Gateway acquisition, Acer overtook Lenovo for third with a market share of 9.1%.
 
Lenovo achieved 7.5% market share, up from 7% in 2006. Rounding out the top five was Toshiba, which also had impressive growth of 22.5% year-over-year, giving the company a market share of 4.2%.
 
Further shuffling could be in store if Acer’s planned acquisition of Packard Bell is approved by European regulatory bodies.
 

SAN MARCOS, CA – Amistar Corp. has entered into an agreement to sell the assets of its automation machine division to newly formed Amistar Automation Inc., based in San Marcos, CA. Financial terms were not disclosed.
 
Joseph Pultinevicius becomes president and chief operating officer and Richard Geisz vice president of operations for Amistar Automation.
 
The new company takes over a series of process equipment lines for assembly and product identification. The company will also continue to distribute the i-Pulse line of SMT and automated optical/laser/x-ray inspection equipment.
 
Amistar Corp. will provide service, warranty and support to existing customers.

MINNEAPOLIS – Nortech Systems reported net sales of $29.3 million for the fourth quarter, up 6% year-over-year. Operating income was $1.1 million, up 47% compared to 2006. Net income totaled $504,112, up 13.8% year-over-year.
 
For 2007, the company reported record net sales of $118.1 million, up 12% year-over-year. Operating income increased 38%, to $3.6 million. Net income was $1.6 million, up 20% compared to 2006.
 
“Last year’s accomplishments were highlighted by a successful acquisition and the launch of our Lean manufacturing initiative,” said Mike Degen, Nortech’s president and CEO.
 
“Our backlog position ended the year strong across our company, positioning us well for the first quarter,” he said.
 
The acquisition of Suntron’s assembly operations in Garner, IA, last February added capabilities and customers in new markets, including agriculture and oil and gas.
 
Nortech’s Lean manufacturing initiative was deployed at its aerospace systems operation last year. Rollouts are planned at other Nortech locations during 2008. 

SAN JOSE – Tessera Technologies claims recent questions over a handful of the chip-packaging firm’s patents mischaracterized the process and the patents’ validity.
 
“Nothing issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in these reexaminations has overturned our patents. We believe the market may have misunderstood the PTO’s terminology, and we are taking this opportunity to clarify the process,” said Scot Griffin, senior vice president and general counsel, in a statement. “Claims of a patent cannot be invalidated in reexamination until the process is fully complete, including all appeals.”
 
The PTO recently issued office actions regarding claims in five Tessera patents, and the company anticipates action on a sixth shortly. However, asserts Tessera, the PTO reexamination process does not suggest a final determination against the company. Moreover, after a determination, Tessera could appeal and the patents would remain in force throughout all appeals.
 
Tessera is familiar with prior art to the patents under reexamination because of previous lawsuits; the company says those lawsuits were resolved in its favor.
 
On March 4, Tessera petitioned the U.S. International Trade Commission to review the recent decision to stay its wireless ITC action. ITC staff also filed its own petition arguing against the stay. The commission is expected to decide within the next 25 days whether it will review the stay decision.
 

SEOUL – A former senior engineer with South Korea's LG Electronics has been arrested for pilfering flat-screen TV technology and leaking it to China, say published reports.
 
LG pegged the losses from the leak at some $1.4 billion, according to the reports.
 
The former employee has been charged with stealing computer files on the design of LG’s PDP plant after leaving the company in 2005. Two other LG employees have also been indicted, according to reports.
 
Since February, the former employee has advised Changhong-Orion PDP-Chaihong of China on constructing a PDP plant in Szechuan province. The Chinese company is expected to come online in December.
 
LG Electronics, Samsung SDI and Matsushita of Japan are the only companies that had this technology, the spokesperson said. The technology involves creating eight PDP units from one.
 

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RADFELD, AUSTRIA and RANCHO DOMINGUEZ, CA – Datacon, a supplier of advanced packaging equipment, and Ablestik, a supplier of adhesives and specialty materials for semiconductor packaging and microassembly applications, have entered a joint technology development and product evaluation agreement.
 
The partnership aims to strengthen the respective companies’ processes for thin die, stacked die handling and other advanced epoxy processes.
 
Demo and laboratory sites in Trevose, PA; Radfeld, Austria; Rancho Dominguez, CA; and Shanghai will be open to both companies and their customers.

SANTA CLARA, CA – iSuppli warned it could trim this year’s semiconductor forecast later this month from an earlier prediction of 7.5%.
 
The research firm blamed signs of weakening pricing and reduced demand for NAND flash, as evidenced by Apple’s recent slashing of its expected 2008 order levels for memory and Intel’s financial warning. It said the second quarter will be the bellwether for the year.
 
The semiconductor market rose 4.1% in 2007, and is entering a period when revenue growth traditionally would be expected to accelerate. However, with weak growth and mounting economic worries, concerns are rising over whether the industry will regain its momentum this year.
 
The current growth cycle hit bottom in February 2006. Following past cyclical patterns, the market would be expected to see a robust rebound in early 2008. However, the current cycle is generating so little growth that a strong market expansion is not expected this year, says iSuppli.
 
Despite this, factors including tighter inventory controls and a limited economic downturn are expected to keep semiconductor growth positive for the year, noted Dale Ford, senior vice president, market intelligence at iSuppli.
 
Ford said semiconductor cycles tend to lose momentum because of supply/demand balance factors within the electronics value chain, rather than because of overall end-demand issues. An imbalance in supply/demand is most easily seen through an analysis of excess inventory levels.
 
“In the early stage of the expansion, we see the sales momentum return; we see the growth come back, and we see companies eager to capture market share,” Ford said. “Thus, we have overproduction and overcapacity. Later, the market must bring things into balance, which leads to a correction.”
 
However, Ford noted the inventory situation shows the industry is currently in a reasonably healthy balance at this point in the semiconductor growth cycle.
 
“The last major downturn (2001) had a perfect storm of overbuild of capacity, a collapse in demand and out-of-control inventory levels,” Ford said. “The industry has gone through a learning period on how to manage capacity more tightly. We’re now getting an earlier warning signal for excess inventories. Once there was a signal that inventories were out of balance, the industry responded quickly to get them back into balance. Once the inventories stabilize, we will see a return to balance between production and demand.”
 
Ford said excess semiconductor inventories in the electronics value chain are expected to fall to the $3.3 billion range in the first quarter. This will be down dramatically from its peak of $6.1 billion in the first quarter 2006.
 
Meanwhile, semiconductor makers plan to manage overall factory utilization in 2008 at levels comparable to 2007, helping to restrain supply growth and to keep pricing from falling too much for many semiconductor part types.
 
Most economists, Ford said, predict the U.S. economy will show either low growth or a mild recession in 2008, but will avoid a major recession this year. With global electronics manufacturing growth projected to drop modestly in 2008 compared to 2007, this will limit the economic impact on the semiconductor industry.
 
The lack of a major increase in semiconductor revenue growth momentum reflects a long-term trend in the chip industry toward more restrained expansion, says iSuppli.
 
“It’s interesting to go back 20 years and see the shifts in long-term growth rates,” Ford said. “Years ago, the global semiconductor market maintained a 27% compound annual growth rate; then it slowed to 17%, and now we are in a period of approximately 7% long-term CAGR. These are maturing dynamics. This is a larger and more mature industry – and it’s acting like it.”
 
Whether the semiconductor market can shake off its woes and achieve growth in 2008 will hinge largely on the industry’s performance in the second quarter, Ford predicted.
 
The first quarter will be seasonally slow, with revenue declining by 7.5% sequentially. However, revenue growth will rebound in the second quarter, rising by 4.6% compared to the first quarter.
 
With flat growth of 0.1% in the fourth quarter and an 11.8% increase in the seasonally strong third quarter, the second quarter performance will be a key indicator of market momentum for the second half of 2008, says iSuppli.