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MACAO – Top 20 EMS provider Nam Tai Electronics reported fourth-quarter sales fell 9.6% to $169 million as the company fell to a net loss for the December period.

For the quarter, the net loss was $14.5 million, down from income of $9.6 million a year ago. The company took $17.9 million in charges for goodwill and layoff compensation. Gross profit fell 8.7% from 11.3% in 2007.

For the year, the company reported sales of $623 million, down 20.2% year-over-year. The net profit was down 56% to $30.6 million.

At quarter’s end, Nam Tai had $237 million in cash on hand, down from $272.5 million

Telecommunications component assembly sales – Nam Tai’s largest market – fell 11% from 2007 on slower mobile device sales and pricing pressure. LCD sales fell 27.2%, and consumer electronics were down 1.4% during the quarter.

COLD SPRING HARBOR, NY – The overall electronics systems market will decline more than 12% in 2009, the largest single-year decline ever, Prismark Partners said today.

The drop would equate to loss of more than $170 billion in revenue year-over-year.

ZALAEGERSZEG, HUNGARY – Flextronics will sack 400 workers from its plant here by the end of March, according to published reports. The cuts will bring the total number of recent layoffs to 1,400, including contract workers, Zalai HÃrlap reports.

The news daily quoted Flextronics spokesman MÃ¡rk HetÃ©nyi as citing a sharp decline in orders.

The cuts include 130 staff in operations and 270 administrative workers.

The site employs 3,700 workers, not including 1,500 to 1,800 contract laborers, the news daily reported.

TAIPEI -- Worldwide shipments of netbooks are expected snare a 17.2% share of the overall notebook PC market in 2009, according to a new research report.

Netbook OEMs shipped 14.6 million units in 2008, a number that's expected to climb to 26.3 million units this year, research firm Displaybank asserts.

Asustek Computer and Acer own the lion's share of the market, with more than 70% of shipments in 2008, the firm said. The top five makers of netbooks are Acer (37.2%), Asus (33.2%), HP (7.5%), MSI (4.8%) and Intel (2.2%).