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News

San Diego, CA – FocalSpot has expanded its corporate office and manufacturing facilities, doubling its presence in the Scripps Ranch area of San Diego. The expansion will accommodate growing production demands for its BGA/SMT inspection and rework solutions.

Construction is expected to be completed this month. Facilities will include: administrative operations, demonstration and training rooms, manufacturing, assembly, equipment/parts warehousing and an applications/prototype lab.

Redmond, WA -- Data I/O signed a multi-year distribution agreement with Toyo Corp. Toyo will provide system installation, service and device support updates for Data I/O programming systems in Japan.

According to the company’s press release, Data I/O’s programming solutions enable high-quality results in volume production of consumer electronics, wireless devices and automotive electronics assemblies. The solutions program flash memory, microcontroller and DSP devices from leading device manufacturers such as Fujitsu, Samsung, Toshiba, Renesas, Microchip Technologies, TI and others.

LAS VEGAS -- In an effort to cope with heavy demand for its Xbox 360, Microsoft Corp. said today it would outsource new production to Celestica.

The Toronto-based contract manufacturer is the third EMS firm contracted to build the video game console.

FT. COLLINS, CO -- Once a site of a major Hewlett-Packard manufacturing plant, Ft. Collins is becoming attractive to major chipmakers. Intel, which already employs about 300 on the former H-P campus, will relocate its offices to a nearby 200,000 sq. ft. site recently purchased from Celestica.

DALLAS -- Texas Instruments said today it will sell its sensors and controls business to Bain Capital for $3 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close during the first half of this year.

NEW YORK -- This year will bring a significant increase in sales of video-enabled devices because of increased content availability and a greater number of video playing devices, says the research arm of SG Cowan.

Citing the number of products on display at last week-s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, SG Cowan said the arrival of digital video is to "positively impact a wide range of semiconductor companies spanning memory to logic to analog conversion and power management."

Anaheim, CA – Susan Mucha, president of Powell-Mucha Consulting, will present a tutorial during Apex on “Creating Competitive Advantage in Today’s EMS Market.” The course will be held on Feb. 7 from 2-5 p.m. at the conference center in Anaheim.

“EMS marketers face a lot of challenges: low budgets, prospects with unrealistic cost expectations, competitive issues and cycles of changing technology,” says Mucha. “But, these challenges have been repeating themselves for decades. This tutorial looks at industry patterns and discusses strategies to overcome both current short-term challenges such as the transition to RoHS compliance and sustaining challenges such as finding adequate budget in a low margin industry. We also dissect the entire EMS value proposition and look at business models appropriate in various industry tiers.”

The tutorial covers five key areas: sources of competitive advantage in EMS services, brand definition/promotion, lead qualification/mindshare maintenance, packaging EMS services and account acquisition strategy development. Susan Mucha has been involved in marketing EMS services since 1981.

For more info: goipcshows.org/profdev.asp.

ELKHART, IN -- CTS Corp. today said it will shut down a factory in Berne, IN, and relocate production to another in-state facility and to Mexico and Singapore this year. The company will take restructuring charges of $4.5 million to $5.5 million.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Jabil Circuit and Carl Zeiss will develop joint venture for optical modules development., with Jabil holding the majority interest, the companies said.

BRUSSELS – November semiconductor sales in Europe were up 3.2% sequentially with strong performance in microcontrollers and microprocessors.

PHUC DIEN INDUSTRIAL ZONE, VIETNAM -- A subsidiary of Brother Industries Ltd., the maker of printers and other communications devices, will invest $40 million in a new manufacturing plant in the Hai Duong Province of Vietnam.

Brother Industries Vietnam Ltd. will build printers, faxes and other multifunctional gear for export at the plant, which is due to come online in April 2007. The plant will employ 500 workers and produce about 30,000 units will be produced per month, Brother said.

ARLINGTON, VA -- Factory sales of consumer electronics will reach a new high of $135.4 billion in 2006, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. The trade group issued its forecast ahead of the annual International Consumer Electronics Show, the world's largest consumer technology trade show.