PALO ALTO, CA -- Agilent Technologies has promoted William Sullivan as the company's next president and CEO, effective March 1. Sullivan, currently Agilent's executive vice president and COO, succeeds Ned Barnholt. 
 
Sullivan has had overall responsibility for the Electronic Products and Solutions Group, Agilent's largest business group. He was formerly senior vice president and general manager of Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group.
 
Barnholt is retiring as chairman, president and CEO of the company he helped launch following its spin-off from Hewlett-Packard in 1999.
 
"The past six years as Agilent's CEO have been rewarding ones for me," said Barnholt. "While I will miss this important part of my life, I look forward to what lies ahead."
 
James G. Cullen, who has served on the board of directors since 2000, will become non-executive chairman when Barnholt retires in March. At that time, Sullivan will join the board. Barnholt will stay on as chairman emeritus as long as needed to ensure a smooth transition.

Thin-film technologies continue to evolve and their use is broadening as component manufacturers are considering replacing conventional thick-film processes to manufacture smaller components and parts. Reason: thin-films permit new families of products, modifying and enhancing the properties of bulk material by the deposition of a top thin layer having different composition and morphology, says a new study from Business Communications Co. 

Global sales of thin-film raw materials hit $7.1 billion in 2004, estimates say, and are projected to reach $13.5 billion by 2009, an average annual growth rate of 13.7%, BCC says. 
Chemical deposition methods (chemical vapor deposition, chemical solution deposition, plating type methods) accounts for over 70% of the global market for thin-film raw materials, driven by large sales of plating chemicals. Electronics accounts for 66% of total sales. 
Sales of thin-film materials for chemical processes increased during 2002-04 from $4.1 billion to $5.1 billion, and are expected to show an AAGR of 12.9% over the next five years, reaching $9.3 billion by 2009. 

Raw materials for physical processes (evaporation, sputter deposition and ionic deposition) rose to 28.6% from 24.8% of the total market for thin-film materials from 2002-04. Sales are projected to reach $4.2 billion by 2009, an AAGR of 15.7%. 

GREENVILLE, SC -- Kemet Corp. has filed a lawsuit against AVX Corp. to protect trade secrets relating to the development and manufacture of tantalum polymer capacitors. Kemet seeks damages and an injunction.

In the lawsuit, filed in South Carolina court, Kemet alleges that AVX had access to trade secrets after hiring a scientist from Kemet's technology group. The suit alleges that through this scientist, AVX learned certain trade secrets related to tantalum polymer capacitor manufacturing. AVX has since introduced similar products, Kemet said.

Kemet has produced the components since 1999, and they now constitute the fastest growing segment of this market.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- A subsidiary of Nam Tai Electronics has relocated to a new 600,000 sq. ft. factory in Shenzhen, the company said today.

J.I.C. Technology's new factory in the countryside of Baoan County is twice the size of its former plant. The manufacturing space is now 416,000 sq. ft., up from 152,000 sq. ft.

JIC also installed new chip on glass (COG) machines and upped capacity of COG and tape automated bonding with anisotropic conductive film products by 150%.

The former factory in downtown Baoan County was not suitable for high-tech operations and had limited space available for expansion.

 

BOSTON -- Teradyne Inc. posted a quarterly profit compared with a year-earlier loss.

The company posted a profit of $3.3 million in the fourth quarter, compared with a loss of $11.5 million a year earlier. Sales rose to $377 million from $357.6 million a year earlier. For the quarter sales were down 18% sequentially and up 5% year-over-year.

The company said in a statement that despite the slight increase in orders in the fourth quarter, customer demand remains tentative.

Teradyne forecasts first-quarter sales of $290 million and $310 million, with a loss between 24 and 31 cents a share. This guidance includes pre-tax restructuring and other charges of $13 million and a $2.5 million tax provision for foreign and state taxes.

Analysts on average had forecast the company to post first-quarter revenue of $343.18 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

On a conference call with analysts president Mike Bradley said the company's Connection Systems division has downsized its manufacturing footprint in U.S. in the wake of a sharp downturn in orders in the third quarter. The moves should reduce the company's breakeven point by $10 million a quarter.

"Our U.S. operations will become epicenter of design capabilities. Future growth in volume manufacturing will occur in low cost regions," Bradley said.

Connection Systems' orders were down over 20% sequentially in the fourth quarter. The division grew 39% for the year.

Connection Systems includes PCB bare-board manufacturing and connectors.

The company, which earlier this month laid off 320 employees at its Connection Systems and Assembly Test divisions and took a $11 million charge, said the semiconductor test market continues to be soft, mostly at the subcontractor level.

 

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TAIPEI -- Hon Hai Precision Industry yesterday forecast  first-quarter sales to rise 30% over last year, thanks to sustained demand from the holiday season.

Quoting chairman Terry Gou, the Taipei Times reported, "Overall, we feel the first quarter is quite good, compared to the same period last year as Christmas demand for consumer gadgets has not subsided as it did in the past," adding that a similar situation has occurred in other electronic segments.

"The first quarter will not be as slow as it was before," he said.

Hon Hai's fourth quarter sales were up 27% to NT$136.8 billion, from NT$107.8 billion year-on-year. For the year, the company said sales grew 26% to NT$413.4 billion.

Foxconn International Holdings, the company's handset unit, could gain as much as $432.6 million when it goes public on the Hong Kong exchange later this year, the Taipei Times reported. The company plans to spend 54% of the sale's proceeds to expand production in China, Hungary and South America.

Foxconn earned $134.5 million on sales of $2.1 billion in the nine months ended last September.

SAN DIEGO -- Kyocera Wireless Corp. will move its mobile-phone and telemetry manufacturing operations to Tijuana, Mexico, and layoff 450 manufacturing personnel in San Diego, the company said.

"Wireless is among the most competitive of all consumer electronics segments, and in order to compete today, manufacturers must leverage all resources available to them globally," said James Kelly, executive vice president and chief operating officer, in a statement. "Because manufacturing in La Jolla is cost prohibitive, we're fortunate to have the manufacturing expertise and state-of-the-art facilities of our sister company KMX, located less than an hour away. Taking advantage of this opportunity is not only good for the company, it's also good for the San Diego/Tijuana region as we're maintaining over 1,500 jobs north of the border, while supporting the growing economy south of the border with our manufacturing operations."

Kyocera also plans to cut another 150 jobs in San Diego as it spreads its service and repair business to other regions. Sales and marketing, human resources, finance and R&D will remain at Kyocera's headquarters in San Diego.

The move makes Motorola as the sole company building mobile phones in the U. S., according to RCR Wireless News. Nokia Corp.  maintains a final assembly plant in Fort Worth, TX, and LG Electronics this month opened an R&D lab in the U.S.

FRANKLIN, MA - Speedline Technologies will expand its business network in Asia through a new distribution agreement with Schmidt & Co., (H.K.) Ltd.

Hong Kong based Schmidt & Co., a provider of manufacturing process technology
and technical services, will provide sales and services support for Speedline's Electrovert line of wave soldering, reflow soldering and cleaning equipment and its MPM line of stencil and screen printing systems in Taiwan and mainland China.

Schmidt will focus on Taiwanese customers in those regions, Speedline said.

WALLINGFORD, CT - Amphenol Corp. said that fourth-quarter earnings rose on strong performance in its core business, and the company declared its first-ever quarterly dividend.

The company said net income for the quarter was $45.6 million, up from $33 million a year ago.

Sales rose to $404 million from $342 million. Amphenol said sales at its interconnect products segment, which accounts for 87% of total sales, were up 20% from a year ago.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call were expecting the company to earn 49 cents in the latest quarter on sales of $393.6 million.

For the year, net income rose to $163.3 million from $104 million. Sales rose to $1.53 billion from $1.24 billion.

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SAN FRANCISCO -- A leading analyst today maintained its cautious outlook for providers of electronics manufacturing services.

Deutsche Bank said recent reports from major OEMs that outsource manufacturing indicate tepid and in some cases negative growth ahead for EMS firms. 

In hardware sales, IBM, a leading outsourcer, reported a 1% year-on-year increase in the fourth quarter due to slowness in its mainframes, storage and PC businesses, down from 9% sequentially. Motorola and Juniper fell on a year-on-year basis. 

Handset shipments improved as Motorola and SonyEricsson beat quarterly forecasts, although the average selling prices were lower than expectations, DB said.

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SECAUCUS, NJ -- Panasonic Industrial Co. today named Arrow Electronics as an authorized North American distributor of its passive and electromechanical products, effective Feb. 28. 

Arrow, one of the world's largest component distributors, currently sells Panasonic's parts in Europe and Canada.

by Mike Buetow

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 - Solectron Corp. will close one of its four factories here in May and pay a reported $1.6 million to the 750 displaced staff, a local newspaper reported today.

The Business Times reported Solectron said the Johor plant was no longer viable due to customers' changing needs. Most of the business will be transferred to other sites in the region," Joe Tang, south Asia operations vice president, was quoted as saying.

Solectron employs more than 7,000 workers at its four manufacturing plants here.

Analysts feel the nation's electronics manufacturers are migrating to lower cost regions, the Business Times said.

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