Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Jabil Circuit Inc. will restate its 2005 financial reports as a result of a review of its historical stock options practices. The company said it intends to file any restated financial statements and its annual report for the year ended Aug. 31, 2006, "as soon as practicable."

The contract manufacturer is being investigated by the SEC over its past stock option grants.

NEWPORT, UK - EVS International has relocated to Porchfield, Newport, UK. The facility is triple the size of the company’s previous separate facilities. The new facility houses all offices, the warehouse and workshop.

MINNEAPOLIS – The SMTA has announced its board of directors for the term that began Sept. 2006. President David Raby, STI Electronics; secretary Irene Sterian, Celestica; Dr. Denis Barbini, Vitronics-Soltec, and VP Communications Steve Greathouse, Intel, were reelected to three-year terms.

Remaining on the SMTA board of directors is treasurer Dan Baldwin, Engent; VP technical programs Dr. Ken Gilleo, ET-Trends; VP membership Jim Kuehn, Tyco Electronics; planning committee chairperson Bill Barthel, Plexus, and planning committee members Ning-Cheng Lee, Indium; Dick Russell, Micromeritics, and Dr. Laura Turbini, University of Toronto.

Tom Forsythe of Kyzen is newly elected planning committee member.

TORONTO -- Electronics manufacturing services provider SMTC Corp. reported third-quarter net income of $6.1 million on revenue of $65.7 million for its third quarter ended Oct. 1, aided by $5 million in gains from one-time items. Last year, the company had earnings of $700,000 on sales of $64.6 million. Sequentially, net income was $1.3 million on $61.1 million in sales.

MILPITAS, CA -- Solectron expects to meet or exceed its previous first-quarter revenue guidance of $2.6 billion to $2.8 billion. The EMS firm maintained its first-quarter earnings of 4 to 6 cents per share.

The announcement came despite a delay in implementation of a new supply chain management program with Cisco Systems.

SAN JOSE -- Electronics manufacturing services company Suntron Corp. has reached a confidential settlement with Applied Materials, the company said. Applied agreed to pay Suntron an undisclosed sum in exchange for certain Suntron inventory.

The companies also ended their other claims.

Suntron sued Applied in 2004, seeking damages related to more than $18 million in unused and obsolete inventory it had acquired to meet expected future demand from Applied.

In May, Suntron said that the Texas Supreme Court had cleared its litigation against Applied.

PALO ALTO, CA -- Agilent Technologies will acquire Acqiris SA, a Switzerland based manufacturer of high-speed digitizers and analyzers for commercial, industrial and government electronics. The transaction is subject to standard closing conditions. Financial details were not disclosed.

ARLINGTON, VA -- Consumer electronics gifts will account for a quarter of all holiday gifts, with revenues rising 21% to $21 billion this holiday season, the Consumer Electronics Association said.

"The holiday outlook for our industry is a merry one," said director of industry analysis Sean Wargo. "Consumers' confidence in the economy is on the rise and the CE industry will benefit. CE gifts dominate a quarter of the overall holiday gift giving market. And consumers tend to shop with a 'one for you-one for me' mindset during the holiday season. As a result, gifts for others only account for about half of the volume of sales in the fourth quarter."

According to the survey, consumers will spend $195 on average for consumer electronics gifts.

"The upgrade cycle is driving a lot of this growth. Lured in by the declining prices on many new digital products, consumers are spending more for consumer electronics on average than they have in the past. An example of this is the MP3 player versus the portable CD player. The initial price for an MP3 player is higher than the initial price five or 10 years ago for a portable CD player," said Wargo.

For the second year in a row, the most popular item among adults to give or get is MP3 players. The rest of the top 10 list includes all types DVD players/recorders, digital cameras, laptops and PCs, televisions, video game systems, cellphones, camcorders and HDTV.

Topping the gift list, or what consumers actually plan to buy, this holiday season are digital cameras, cellphones, MP3 players, video game consoles, portable CD players, carrying cases, cordless phones, additional memory for digital cameras, laptops and clock radios.

Teen aged 12 to 17 selected MP3 players, video game consoles and computers.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — Market research firms iSuppli Corp. and Data Garage have merged, bringing together two firms that focus on electronics analysis.

Data Garage is based in Japan, iSuppli in the U.S.

HO CHI MINH CITY – Intel announced Friday it will more than triple its initial investment in Vietnam to $1 billion, expanding the size of a chip assembly and testing plant in HITECH Park.

OXFORDSHIRE, UK – The National Physical Laboratory will hold a meeting on copper dissolution in lead-free alloys on Dec. 7 in Oxfordshire.

According to NPL, the meeting will launch a program that intends to study various lead-free alloys under different temperatures and soldering technologies. The group plans to develop a measuring method for testing alloys.

The agenda will be set by the group’s specific production needs, designs, equipment, alloys and PCB finishes. Participants will gain access to experimental results before the end of the project.

NPL wants to develop a monitoring technique to quantify the rate of copper loss as a result of immersion in a molten metal under static and dynamic conditions; investigate copper dissolution with a range of solder alloys, PCB styles and temperatures; and produce a best practice guide to include a test method for minimizing PCB copper dissolution.

Solder manufacturers, wave soldering manufacturers and end-users are expected to make up the program team.

REDMOND, WA – Data I/O and Intel will offer an integrated solution to facilitate adoption and manufacturing with Intel’s flash memory devices and Data I/O’s automated programmers.

The companies will collaborate on concurrent engineering practices for cellular, consumer electronics, communications, computing and industrial applications, and will offer joint seminars and other educational forums. Data I/O will provide priority support for Intel customers, and work on technology development and licensing.

The companies will also explore collaborating on the Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) initiative to establish a standard interface for NAND flash memory devices.