News
SALT LAKE CITY - Huntsman Corp., one of the world's largest chemical firms, raised $1.45 billion in its initial public offering yesterday.
Demand for the company's 60.2 million common shares was stronger than anticipated, Wall Street analysts said.
The bulk of the proceeds will be used to reduce debt.
The company has also committed about $100 million of the proceeds toward various family charities including the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and cancer research, chief executive Peter Huntsman told the media.
Until yesterday, Huntsman Corp. called itself the world's largest privately held chemicals manufacturer. For nine months ended Sept. 30, the company reported a net loss of $284.9 million on revenues of $8.36 billion. It operates 63 plants in 22 countries and employs 11,600.
Huntsman has a total debt of about $6.2 billion, including bond debt, due to a series of acquisitions and restructurings.
The company has a variety of holdings in the electronics sector, including the former Vantico, a supplier of soldermask materials for circuit boards.
SAN CLEMENTE, CA - YESTech, a provider of AOI equipment, has opened a branch office in Shanghai.
The new office provides training and sales on YESTech's automated optical inspection and x-ray inspection systems for circuit board assembly and semiconductor packaging.
"The opening of the China office is a milestone for YESTech," said Don Miller, president of YESTech, in a press release. "We will be able to provide improved customer support, more effectively demonstrate our products to potential clients, and reduce the sales cycle for the rapidly growing China market."
BINGHAMTON, NY -- Frost & Sullivan has named Universal Instruments as recipient of its 2004 award for customer service leadership.
In a press statement the research firm said Universal won for its proactive service partnership approach that meets both the stated and unstated requirements of its customers globally.
Frost & Sullivan presents the award annually to the company that has demonstrated excellence in customer service leadership within the industry.
"In the evolving world of electronic assembly, Universal has a refreshingly proactive and predictive approach to customer service in the surface mount technology placement equipment market," says Frost & Sullivan senior research analyst Vikram Shanbhag. "This includes the establishment of a highly networked global service infrastructure with regional hubs to meet specific customer needs."
Universal has a network of over 200 service personnel around the globe. New service offerings such as support continuance, and a focus on service partnership initiatives have set Universal apart from competitors, Frost said.
FRANKLIN, MA - February 16- Frost & Sullivan has named Speedline Technologies its 2005 Surface Mount Technology Company of the Year, citing the firm's "tremendous success, focus on process expertise and excellence in operations, competitive strategy and industry leadership."
Speedline is a maker of capital equipment for electronics manufacturers. The company's "dramatic turnaround and performance over the past two years," despite tough overall economic times for the industry, was key in the selection, according to Keith Robinson, industry manager of F&S.
Speedline's process knowledge expertise, especially in lead-free manufacturing, its customer service and its used equipment programs were cited as additional factors in the award.
"Speedline provides increased value to its customers through its innovative product offerings and close work with their customers' R&D teams to refine the emerging lead-free manufacturing process," said Robinson. "Speedline treats customer service as a separate business and cross-trains its customer support team to work with various types of equipment," said Robinson.
The award will be officially presented to Speedline at a banquet on May 25 in Naples, FL.
REDMOND, WA - Data I/O today reported fourth-quarter revenues dropped to $5.8 million and the firm posted a net loss of $584,000 on seasonality and customer postponements.
Last year the company, which supplies programming solutions, showed a net profit of $337,000 on sales of $6.6 million.
Gross margins slipped one point to 53.8%.
The company took a restructuring charge of $60,000 in the fourth quarter.
As of Dec. 31 cash and short-term investments were $6.6 million. The company is debt-free.
For the year, Data I/O reported revenues of $27.3 million, up 10.6% from revenues in 2003. The net loss was $92,000, compared with net income of $1.3 million a year ago.
"The fourth quarter financial results reflect the seasonality of our customers' businesses as some of our customers delayed shipments until the first quarter of 2005," said Fred Hume, president and CEO, in a statement. "Our disappointments in these delays were compounded by the fact that a major shipment to China was also delayed in customs for over two weeks."
Data I/O guided for first quarter revenues of $7 million and gross margins of 54%. "January revenues provide a good start for the first quarter, and we remain confident that 2005 will be a good year," Hume said.
Meanwhile, Tom Ingham, vice president of sales for North America, has resigned, DDi said.
In a statement, McMaster said, "I want to give our sales organization a renewed sense of purpose -- to grow this business and to drive revenues. I will be visiting our customers, focusing on their technology roadmaps, and working to ensure that DDi remains a vital link in their supply chain."
