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CHICAGO -- Electronics manufacturing services provider Staci Corp. has been sold to Centre Lane Partners for an undisclosed sum.

SAN FRANCISCO — “Technology in the marketplace has advanced over the years to change the way we live. In today’s world, mass implementation of these new technologies needs to accelerate in order to keep pace with society’s demands. Yet, we’ve repeatedly seen technologies that held great promise fall short of market realization because the promise came with too many barriers – capital expenditure, global supply-chain, technological scale-up, regulations, market timing, infrastructure, and so on."

So says Dr. Gene Kim of Alpha, a division of Alent. Kim is co-chairing the first Global Summit for Advanced Manufacturing (GSAM), a forum to explore practical solutions for today’s most pressing manufacturing challenges, including the convergence of miniaturization, automation, integration, ruggedization, materials and processes, along with other special topics.

GSAM will feature case study-based presentations, networking opportunities and one-on-one individual meeting sessions on how to leverage today’s successfully developed and manufactured products to yield viable solutions for the emerging manufacturing leaders of tomorrow.

The event takes place here July 9 and 10 and will be colocated with SemiCon West.

"The true manufacturing value-add offered by a technological advancement comes from its total cost-of-ownership benefit, but key decision makers have lacked a forum in which they could candidly and thoroughly discuss this assessment," says Kim. "GSAM was conceived to encourage these important discussions – real people discussing real manufacturing challenges in an environment that cultivates manufacturing innovation.”

SAN MATEO, CA – Based on a greater decline in demand than predicted in the first quarter and concerns that tablets and 2-in-1s will face additional market challenges the rest of the year, IDC has lowered its 2014 worldwide tablet plus 2-in-1 forecast to 245.4 million units, down from the previous forecast of 260.9 million units.

The new forecast represents a 12.1% year-over-year growth rate, which is notably lower than the 51.8% year-over-year growth of 2013.

"Two major issues are causing the tablet market to slow down. First, consumers are keeping their tablets, especially higher-cost models from major vendors, far longer than originally anticipated. And when they do buy a new one they are often passing their existing tablet off to another member of the family," said Tom Mainelli, program vice president, Devices & Displays at IDC. "Second, the rise of phablets – smartphones with 5.5" and larger screens – are causing many people to second-guess tablet purchases as the larger screens on these phones are often adequate for tasks once reserved for tablets."

In the past year alone, the phablet share of smartphone shipments has more than doubled, from 4.3% in the first quarter of 2013 to 10.5% in the first quarter of this year, representing 30.1 million units shipped. As large phones clearly impact near-term tablet growth, IDC expects the market to rebound by shifting its focus back toward larger-screened devices. Products with larger screens--like Microsoft's new 2-in-1, the 12" Surface Pro 3— are expected to play a greater role in the market going forward.

"The shift back toward larger screens will mark a welcome sea change for most vendors as the average selling price for these devices will remain roughly 50% higher than the average sub-8" device," said research analyst Jitesh Ubrani. "Microsoft is also expected to benefit from this shift as the share for Windows-based devices is expected to double between now and 2018."

Total Tablet Market Forecast, 2013 – 2018

	Screen Size Band
Year	7 < 8	8 < 11	11+
2013 Actual	55.0%	44.1%	0.9%
2014 Forecast	50.8%	47.3%	1.9%
2018 Forecast	44.5%	48.9%	6.6%

SANTA CLARA, CA -- Test Research Inc. will host a technology seminar here next month to introduce innovations to its PCBA testing and inspection equipment. The event takes place June 26 at Hotel Biltmore in Santa Clara.

The agenda will focus on new developments in 3D SPI and 3D AOI, and conclude with demonstrations on the company's novel 3D AXI systems, inline and desktop ICTs.

To register contact Fendi Lin at Fendi_Lin@tri.com.tw; 408-567-9898. For more information visittri.com.tw.

SINGAPORE -- SMT Holdings' revenue for the three months ended March 31 was HK$144.1 million ($18.59 million), essentially flat year-over-year. The profit fell to HK$1.5 million from HK$168.4 million a year ago.

Last year's operating profit included a restructuring gain of HK$159.1 million; without it, the profit would have been HK$9.3 million.

Sequentially, revenue decreased from HK$180 million to HK$144.1 million, due mainly to typical seasonality.

For the quarter, 93% of SMT's revenue came from the industrial sector, the remainder from consumer electronics OEMs.

SMT generates most of its sales (86%) from the US and Europe, where the first quarter GDP growth was below expectations. China economy continues to slow, while Japan’s economy holds steady, the company observed. Regional conflicts have introduced more uncertainty and volatility, and as such the economic outlook remains cautious, the firm said.

The EMS company said it sees increases in demand from most of its existing customers, in particular those from Europe. Escalating operating costs in China remain challenging.

Finally, the firm received a delisting notice from the Singapore Exchange and we will be seeking shareholder approval to delist and privatize as a Bermuda company.

Ed.: 1 USD = 7.75269 HKD

READING, BERKSHIRE, UK -- Active-PCB Solutions has doubled its manufacturing site here and increased capacity with a third SMT line. The EMS company added 12,000 sq. ft. to the building, and installed security protections to support customer IP.

The new SMT line will be used for rapid prototypes and includes a DEK Horizon 03iX printed, BTU Pyramax 98A reflow oven and a Juki 2080 flexible mounter.

Active-PCB Solutions also added a secure facility to protect its OEM customer's intellectual property and confidentiality of new products, and dedicated stores.