Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - White Papers

News

HONG KONG, Oct. 12 -- Kingboard Chemical Holdings Ltd. plans to seek a majority stake in Elec & Eltek International Holdings, Dow Jones reported today.

Kingboard, which makes PCBs and laminates, currently owns 27.7% of Elec & Eltek International Holdings. If it succeeds in gaining a majority share in the company, Kingboard will then offer to buy the firm's Singapore-listed Elec & Eltek International Co. Ltd.

Elec & Eltek currently provides boards to Intel and IBM.

Kingboard said the deal will enhance the economies of scale of its PCB as the two companies' business and customers are complementary, Dow Jones reported.

ANAHEIM, CA, Oct. 8, 2004 -- DDi Corp. will lay off up to 175 employees at its Milpitas, CA, manufacturing facility and take cash charges of $1 million as it attempts to lower its costs. The losses will be partially offset by the expected addition of a small number of employees across DDi's other facilities, bringing the total staff reduction to approximately 7% of DDi's worldwide workforce.

Some orders will be moved to DDi facilities in Toronto and Virginia, taking advantage of those plants' lower production costs, said Bruce McMaster, DDi's CEO.

Following the restructuring, the company will continue to employ more than 1,800 people. As a result of the workforce reduction, DDi expects a cash restructuring charge of approximately $1 million to be incurred in the fourth quarter of 2004 and to realize annualized cost savings of between $6 and $7 million.

KNOXVILLE, TN, Oct. 18 - SMTC Corp. will supply electronics manufacturing services and logistics services to Radio Systems Corp. under a new long-term agreement, the companies jointly said today.

Terms of the deal were not announced.

SMTC will supply engineering, printed circuit board and final product assembly services starting in the current quarter with volumes ramping in 2005.

CLINTON, NY, Oct. 18 -- Bobet Corp. will service and sell Indium Corp. of America's complete line of assembly products as part of a new supply deal, the companies said today.

Bobet, which was founded in 1997, will handle the greater Arizona area, Indium said in a press release.

MILPITAS, CA, Oct. 18 -- Solectron Corp. has named Matti Virtanen senior vice president and president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He joined the company Oct. 4.

Virtanen will coordinate efforts to expand the company's business and ensure customer satisfaction. He reports to Marty Neese, executive vice president of worldwide sales and account management.

Virtanen has experience at Nokia, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, where his responsibilities included developing and executing international go-to-market strategies, building senior-level customer relationships, running services and hardware businesses and developing brand strategies.

He has a master's in computer science, business management and HVAC from the Helsinki University of Technology.

Naples, FL - Megan Wendling, president of MW Associates, has combined with the MII and the SMTA to offer a series of Lead-Free Seminars throughout China in 2004 and 2005. Other companies involved with the seminar series include KIC, Kester, Kyzen, Aqueous Technologies, Creative Automation, Vitronics Soltec, MVP, Tyco and BP Microsystems.

The first seminar will be held Nov. 3 at the Asia Hotel in Beijing, China, and will focus on the lead-free process. Approximately 180 attendees have signed up for the seminar, which will be presented in Chinese.

The series will continue to Shanghai, Schenzen and then to Taiwan in the upcoming year.

MW Assoc. marketing agency is also the publisher of Lead-Free Magazine.com. For further details, contact Megan Wendling: (239) 403-0230 or megwend@aol.com.