MURRAY HILL, NJ - Is Lucent Technologies readying to cut manufacturing ties with Jabil Circuit?

In a column posted Monday at theStreet.com, a Wall Street newletter, Lucent was said to be preparing to reduce its EMS supply list to two, with Jabil among three EMS companies that stand to be on the outs.

Quoting "people close to Lucent," theStreet.com columnist Scott Moritz wrote that while Lucent declined to comment on any specific changes, the company was looking at its options.

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TORONTO - Celestica Inc. has named Craig Muhlhauser president and executive vice president of worldwide sales and business development. Muhlhauser was previously president and chief executive of Exide Technologies. He will lead the EMS maker's global sales and business development effort and drive the growth strategy.

Muhlhauser has over 25 years of sales, marketing and general management experience with GE, United Technologies and Ford. Muhlhauser holds a masters in mechanical engineering and a bachelor's in aerospace engineering from the University of Cincinnati.

"I am very excited to have Craig Muhlhauser join the Celestica team. I had the pleasure of working with Craig at Ford and know him to be an extremely capable, customer-focused senior executive," said Steve Delaney, CEO of Celestica. "Craig's vast sales and marketing expertise, and his creativity in developing integrated offerings, will be a great asset to Celestica and, ultimately, our customers."

In addition to this change, Marvin MaGee, Celestica's former head of worldwide business development has been named executive vice president, worldwide operations. MaGee will be responsible for managing Celestica's global manufacturing network, as well as implementing site-to-site consistency in Lean, Six Sigma, organization capability and customer care.

MaGee joined Celestica's executive team in 1997. Prior to that, he spent 18 years with IBM Canada where he held multiple senior management positions in manufacturing and development. MaGee holds a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from the University of New Brunswick and an MBA from McMaster University.

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HAUPPAUGE, NY -- Jaco Electronics Inc., a distributor of electronic components, today reported third-quarter revenues of $60.5 million, down from $63.1 million last year.

For the period ended March 31 the net  loss was $1.1 million, down from a profit of $129 million last year.

Sequentially quarterly revenues rose 16.5%, and the quarterly net loss fell 29%.

Jaco chairman and chief executive Joel Girsky said, "We are continuing to evolve our 
business model to strengthen our market presence while simultaneously reducing 
all nonessential costs. Our strategy is based on an ongoing focus on our
flat panel display capability, marketing efforts targeted at business in the 
U.S. and the reduction of overhead and costs without impairing our ability to support 
our customers. 

During the quarter, the company reduced SG&A costs 10.3% year-on-year and 8% sequentially.

"Jaco remains focused on capturing U.S. business, and we recently expanded our quote group team" to focus on mid-level contract manufacturers," Girsky said.

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Rolling Meadows, IL- BEST Inc., in conjunction with Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials and Automated Learning Corp. (ALC), announce the launch of their  "Lead Free Rework " assembly training course. This interactive multimedia learning course is designed for rework technicians, process engineers and repair depot technicians and their respective managers who are involved in the rework of lead-free electronic assemblies.
 
The course teaches key concepts through presentation, practice and testing of the material. Learning takes place at any time or place that is conducive for the student, with a final interactive test for certification of the concepts learned in the program. The course can be conducted over a company LAN or through the internet. Translated versions will be offered in German and Chinese.