ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY DIGEST
A BI-MONTHLY NEWS BULLETIN FOR
THE ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS INDUSTRY A SERVICE FROM EUROPARTNERS
Edition 087– MAY 5, 2011
GENERAL
Times are hard for European leaders. Philips will transfer
its television business into a joint venture with TPV
Technology. This is presented as the only way for the
television business to return to profitability. The new
company will be 70 percent owned by TPV and 30 percent
by Philips. The joint venture will be responsible for the
design, manufacturing, distribution, marketing and sales of
Philips’ Television business worldwide, with the exception
of certain countries. Separately, Nokia announced plans to
form a strategic collaboration with Accenture that would
result in the transfer of Nokia's Symbian software
activities, including about 3,000 employees to Accenture.
In addition, Nokia also plans to reduce its global
workforce by about 4,000 employees by the end of 2012,
with the majority of reductions in Denmark, Finland and
the UK.
SEMICONDUCTORS
US-based suppliers captured 9 of the top 10 places and 13
of the top 20 positions in the fabless IC supplier ranking
for 2010, so IC Insights. Combined, the top 20 fabless IC
suppliers represented 77 percent of the $ 59.9 billion in
fabless IC sales last year. Overall, 13 fabless IC companies
had over $ 1 billion in IC sales in 2010. 2010 was the first
year on record that total fabless IC company sales did not
outperform total IC market growth (a 27 percent increase
for fabless IC companies versus a total IC industry growth
rate of 31 percent). Relatively poor performances by
Qualcomm, MediaTek, Nvidia, LSI, ST-Ericsson, Realtek,
and Himax were to blame.
Worldwide semiconductor revenue amounted to $ 304.1
billion in 2010, up 32.1 percent from 2009, according to
the final IHS iSuppli 2010 semiconductor revenue
ranking. Among the major semiconductor categories,
memory ICs had the strongest growth at 52.4 percent. In
comparison, the next fastest-rising area was sensors and
actuators at 35.5 percent, followed by discretes at 34.5
percent. The biggest growth driver in the memory segment
in 2010 was DRAM, which enjoyed 75.0 percent
expansion. The other major segment of the memory
market, NAND flash, grew 38.6 percent for the year. But
for Gartner, worldwide semiconductor revenue reached $
299.4 billion in 2010, up 30.9 percent from 2009. And for
IDC, worldwide semiconductor revenues increased more
than 24 percent year over year to $ 282 billion in 2010.
© May 2011 Europartners Consultants
In Q1 2011, 21 semiconductor companies raised $ 407.1
M, a dollar amount increase of 105.4 percent over Q4 2010
and a decrease of 10.3 percent over Q1 2010, so the Global
Semiconductor Alliance GSA. Three companies, BCD
Semiconductor, NeoPhotonics and MagnaChip, went
public in Q1 2011, raising a total of $ 278.5 M through
their IPOs. In Q1 2011, 28 semiconductor M&A deals
were announced, increasing by one deal QoQ and
decreasing by two deals YoY.
Shin-Etsu Chemical said that production at its main
semiconductor silicon wafer plant will return to levels from
before last month's earthquake by the end of June, so the
Nikkei. The company's facility in Fukushima Prefecture
accounts for nearly 20 percent of global supplies. “Chip
production will not be interrupted if the factory returns to
normal by the end of June”, a company official says to the
Japanese newspaper.
Altera announced it set an industry milestone in
semiconductor technology by delivering the most
transistors ever packed onto an integrated circuit. Altera's
28-nm Stratix V FPGAs are the semiconductor industry's
first devices to feature 3.9 billion transistors.
Intel and Micron Technology expanded their NAND Flash
memory joint venture operations with the official opening
of IM Flash Singapore. The $ 3 billion 300 millimetre
facility is expected to employ about 1,200 and is currently
ramping production of the companies' 25nm NAND Flash
memory. IM Flash has ramped production of 25nm NAND
Flash memory at the Singapore facility since mid-2010.
The first-quarter revenue was also an all-time record for
Intel fuelled by double digit annual revenue growth in
every major product segment and across all geographies.
The company reported first-quarter revenue of $ 12.8
billion, operating income of $ 4.2 billion and net income of
$ 3.2 billion.
M/A-COM Technology Solutions has acquired Optomai, a
fabless semiconductor company that develops integrated
circuits and modules for next generation 40 Gbps and 100
Gbps fibre optic networks. Based in Silicon Valley,
Optomai’s product portfolio and expertise in GaAs and InP
circuit design complements M/A-COM Tech’s businesses,
and accelerates its penetration of the rapidly growing
optical communications market. Financial terms of the
transaction were not disclosed.
ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY DIGEST – A SERVICE FROM EUROPARTNERS
-2SMIC, China's largest and most advanced semiconductor
foundry, announced a definitive investment agreement with
China Investment Corporation (CIC). Under the terms of
the agreement, CIC will invest $ 250 M in SMIC and will
own approximately 11.6 percent of SMIC's outstanding
share capital.
based at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering
(CNSE) of the University at Albany. These semiconductor
companies will join CNSE, GlobalFoundries, HP, Hynix,
IBM, Intel, Samsung, and UMC to enable industry-wide
ecosystem readiness for cost effective TSV-based 3D
stacked IC solutions.
Toshiba has fabricated NAND flash memories with 19nm
process technology, the finest level yet achieved. This
latest technology advance has already been applied to 2bit-per-cell 64-gigabit chips that are the world’s smallest
and offer the highest density on a single chip (8 gigabytes).
Toshiba will also add 3-bit-per-cell products fabricated
with the 19nm process technology to its product line-up.
Sino-American Silicon Products (SAS) plans to spin off its
semiconductor unit to the company’s wholly-owned and
new established GlobalWafers and to spin off its sapphire
unit to the company’s wholly-owned and new established
Taiwan Sapphire. The turnover of its remaining solar
business unit accounts for above 70 percent of SAS
revenue. SAS was founded in 1981 and the first public
company specializing in the manufacturing of medium-and
small-diameter silicon wafers in Taiwan.
Infineon filed a patent lawsuit against Atmel. Infineon
seeks damages and permanent injunction for infringement
of eleven United States Patents owned by Infineon.
Infineon also seeks declaratory judgment of noninfringement and invalidity of three United States Patents
owned by Atmel.
Broadcom has completed the acquisition of Provigent, a
provider of mixed signal semiconductors for microwave
backhaul systems. Broadcom paid approximately $ 313 M,
net of cash assumed, to acquire all of the outstanding
shares of capital stock and other rights of Provigent.
NXP Semiconductors has shipped more than half a billion
ABS speed sensor modules -- a key milestone in NXP's
relationship with Continental, one of the leading global
automotive suppliers.
In a planned succession, Brendan Mc Kearney, previously
Executive Vice President has assumed the role of
President, Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe (FSEU). Joji
Murakami, who previously held that position, has moved
to the new position of Chairman, Fujitsu Semiconductor
Europe, and remains a board member of FSEU.
Conexant Systems, a supplier of semiconductor solutions
for imaging, audio, embedded modem, and video
surveillance applications, has been acquired by an affiliate
of Golden Gate Capital, a private equity firm
headquartered in San Francisco.
ADD semiconductor, a Spanish powerline communication
IC company for smart metering, lighting and
home/building automation applications, announced the
opening of its first US office. ADD semiconductor, a
Spanish powerline communication IC company for smart
metering, lighting and home/building automation
applications, announced the opening of its first US office.
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), Altera,
Analog Devices, LSI, ON Semiconductor, and Qualcomm
have joined SEMATECH’s 3D Enablement program
© May 2011 Europartners Consultants
Brooks Automation has entered into a definitive
agreement to sell its contract manufacturing business to
Canada-based EMS provider Celestica for approximately $
80 M in cash. The operations, based in Portland, Oregon
and Wuxi, China specialize in manufacturing complex
mechanical equipment and providing systems integration
services for some of the world's largest semiconductor
equipment manufacturers. The business generated revenue
of $ 135 M for the six months ended March 31, 2011, and
currently employs approximately 450 people. 
OPTOELECTRONICS
Revenue for mobile displays is forecast to grow 47 percent
in 2011 and 19 percent in 2012—reaching $ 22.4 billion,
so DisplaySearch. Due to a strong Q4’10, 2010 mobile
phone display shipments reached 1.6 billion units, up 10.8
percent Y/Y. Revenues reached $ 12.8 billion in 2010, up
10.4 percent Y/Y. Additionally, the 2010 mobile phone
display ASP remained at $ 7.9—the same as in 2009. This
is due to continuously growing emerging markets and to
the smart phone trend, which is pushing demand for higher
specifications including display size, resolution and
technology. The fastest-growing display technology is
AMOLED, which is forecast to reach 128 million units in
2011 and 212 million in 2012.
Sharp and Sony have entered into an amendment to their
agreement executed in July 2009 to establish Sharp
Display Products (“SDP”), a joint venture to produce and
sell large-sized LCD panels and modules. Under the
original JV Agreement, Sony was to make additional
capital injections to SDP, resulting in a maximum 34
percent ownership by Sony of SDP by the end of April
2011. Sharp and Sony have now agreed to amend the JV
agreement to suspend those contributions and plan to
continue to discuss any future contributions by Sony to
SDP until the end of March 2012. Sony owned 7.04
percent of the shares in SDP.
ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY DIGEST – A SERVICE FROM EUROPARTNERS
-3TCL, China’s leading LCD TV maker, will invest $ 100 M
for a 10 percent stake in Suzhou Samsung Electronics LCD
Technology, a TFT-LCD panel joint-venture established
by Samsung at the Suzhou Industrial Park, while Samsung
Electronics plans to acquire a stake (15 percent,
approximately $ 230 M) in CSOT, a LCD panel joint
venture established between TCL and the Shenzhen
municipal government in China. Suzhou Samsung
Electronics LCD is capitalized at $ 1 billion, with Samsung
to hold a 60 percent stake and the government of Suzhou
City a 30 percent stake after TCL acquires a 10 percent
stake. With investment of $ 3 billion, the joint venture will
soon begin construction of a 7.5G factory.
The LED market is expected to explode as unit shipments
increase more than 40 percent in 2011 and double between
2010 and 2013, so The Information Network. Shipments
of high-brightness LEDs (HB-LEDs) will climb to nearly
135 billion units in 2011 from less than 100 billion in
2010, while backlight LEDs (BLU-LEDs) will reach 30
billion units compared to the 20 billion shipped a year ago.
In 2010, Nichia led the market with a 15 percent share,
down from a 16 percent share in 2009. Samsung LED
rocketed to the number two position with a 10.5 percent
share, up from only a 6.5 percent share in 2009. 
line in a 1.27mm pitch. Erni Electronics was established in
1956 and has its headquarters in Adelberg, Germany. Erni
develops and manufactures a wide range of connectors,
backplanes and complete systems, soldering assemblies
and prepared cables.
OTHER COMPONENTS
Seagate Technology and Samsung Electronics have
entered into a definitive agreement under which Samsung
will combine its hard disk drive (HDD) operations into
Seagate. Samsung will provide Seagate with its NAND
flash memory products for use in Seagate’s solid state
drives (SSDs), solid state hybrid drives and other products.
Seagate will supply disk drives to Samsung for PCs,
notebooks and consumer electronics. The combined value
of these transactions and agreements is approximately $
1.375 billion, which will be paid by Seagate to Samsung in
the form of 50 percent stock and 50 percent cash.
PASSIVE COMPONENTS
Smart Modular Technologies, a manufacturer of memory
modules and solid state storage products, has signed a
definitive agreement to be acquired by Silver Lake Partners
in a transaction valued at $ 645 M. As a private company,
Smart Modular believes to have greater flexibility to
manage the volatility of the DRAM cycles that will
continue to be part of its business model.
In Germany, total PCB revenues for January 2011 were up
15 percent over December 2010, and significantly higher
by 26.5 percent compared to January last year, so the
ZVEI. Incoming orders in January were also on a positive
trend, growing by 14 percent compared with the previous
month. Book-to-bill, meanwhile, reached 0.99. The total
number of employees in the German PCB industry was up
9 percent over the same period last year.
Universal Power Group, a Texas-based distributor and
supplier of batteries and related power accessories, has
acquired for $ 3.3 M the assets and business of
Progressive Technologies (PTI), a North Carolina-based
battery pack manufacturer specializing in lithium-ion
battery packs. PTI designs and builds lithium-ion and other
custom battery products for specialized OEMs in the
medical, technology, government and military markets.
In early April, Amphenol completed the acquisition of a
manufacturer of advanced lighting interconnect products
for the automotive market with annual sales of
approximately $ 50 M. Amphenol’ sales for the first
quarter 2011 were $ 941 M compared to $ 771 M for the
2010 period. The 22 percent sales increase was driven by
stronger demand for interconnect products, offset in part
by a moderation in demand for broadband cable products.
DISTRIBUTION
For the third quarter, TE Connectivity (formally Tyco
Electronics) expects a negative impact on sales from Japan
earthquake of approximately $ 135 M ($ 220 M for the full
year). For the fiscal second quarter ended Mar. 25, 2011,
the company reported a net sales increase of 17 percent
year-over-year, and 9 percent sequentially, to $ 3.5 billion.
Erni Electronics has filed a suit at the District Court of
Cologne against Harting. The subject of this suit is the
marketing of the “har-flex” products by Harting, which
Erni considers as an illegal imitation of its SMC connector
© May 2011 Europartners Consultants
Arrow Electronics reported first-quarter 2011 net income of
$ 136.3 M on sales of $ 5.22 billion, compared with net
income of $ 87 M on sales of $ 4.24 billion in the first
quarter of 2010. Global components sales of $ 3.89 billion
increased 24 percent year over year. Global enterprise
computing solutions sales of $ 1.34 billion increased 21
percent year over year. Arrow believes that total secondquarter sales will be between $ 5.55 and $ 5.95 billion, with
global components sales between $ 4.0 and $ 4.2 billion and
global enterprise computing solutions sales between $ 1.55
and $ 1.75 billion.
Avnet sales for the third fiscal quarter increased 40 percent
year over year to $ 6.7 billion; pro forma revenue was up 16
percent year over year. Net income increased 31.9 percent to
$ 151 M. Avnet Electronics Marketing record revenue of $
3.93 billion was up 36 percent year over year while pro
forma revenue grew 18 percent. Growth was strongest in
ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY DIGEST – A SERVICE FROM EUROPARTNERS
-4EMEA as high demand in the industrial and automotive
markets drove revenue up 23 percent sequentially and 30
percent year over year at $ 1,328.5 M. Avnet Technology
Solutions revenue grew 47 percent year over year while pro
forma revenue grew 13 percent at $ 2,742.2 M. For Fiscal
4th Quarter Ending on July 2, 2011, EM sales are expected
to be in the range of $ 3.85 billion to $ 4.25 billion and TS
sales are expected to be between $ 2.75 billion and $ 3.05
billion. Avnet consolidated sales are forecasted to be
between $ 6.60 billion and $ 7.30 billion.
In the fourth quarter ended 31 March 2011, Acal like for
like sales increased by 17 percent year on year. Group sales
continue to be driven by a strong Electronics order book.
The Electronics division (which accounts for
approximately 78 percent of Group sales) reported a fourth
quarter increase in like for like sales of 21 percent. Sales of
products manufactured in Japan (all of which are in the
Electronics division and represent approximately 4 percent
of group revenues), were not significantly impacted by the
earthquake in mid March and Acal has continued to meet
its customers' needs.
RS Components has won the award for New Product
Introduction of the Year in the PCB Design Tools category
from leading industry magazine, Printed Circuit Design &
Fab (PCD&F). DesignSpark PCB was introduced by RS in
July 2010 and has since been downloaded more than
80,000 times. Under a new agreement, RS Components
will also sell a wider range of Tektronix oscilloscopes. RS
Components also announced the opening of a newly
expanded warehouse in Shanghai, China. This substantial
stock up will provide an extensive and fully stocked
inventory within China of over 135,000 product lines. The
company has doubled the size of its warehouse to
4,942sqm. RS Components has also been named Global
Distributor of the Year by Crydom, a manufacturer of solid
state relays and controls. RS Components announced the
introduction of 800 new interconnect products from
Harting. RS has also launched a new Microsite that enables
customers to quickly find and buy products from the
complete Harting range it holds in stock.
Gennum has added Leading Light Technologies (L2Tek)
as a design rep and distributor for its complete line of
analog and mixed signal ICs in the United Kingdom,
Ireland and Norway. Established in 2008 and
headquartered in United Kingdom, Leading Light
Technologies (L2tek) is a manufacturer's representative
and technical distributor specializing in high-speed
interface products, signal processing and compression
products.
FCI, a supplier of connectors and interconnect systems, has
entered into an agent agreement with Zahavi
Technologies, an electronic sales company of
© May 2011 Europartners Consultants
electromechanical components in Israel. Under the terms of
the agreement, Zahavi Technologies will represent FCI
Electronics’ product portfolio in the Israeli market.
Farnell has won the 2010 EMEA High Service Distributor
of the Year award from Tektronix, a global manufacturer
of test measurement and monitoring solutions. The award
recognises the outstanding progress that Farnell has
achieved over the past 12 months with a 20 percent
increase in sales performance and overall engagement,
which outperformed 2009 levels. Laird Technologies, a
supplier in the design and supply of customized
performance-critical components and systems for advanced
electronics and wireless products, also announced it has
signed Farnell as a European distributor for its wireless &
M2M products.
Avnet Abacus is to support its sister companies EBV
Elektronik, Silica, Avnet Memec & Avnet Embedded at
the recently-announced ‘Design Strategies for ARM
Systems’ seminar program which will play in 16 cities
across Europe in May and June.
Future Electronics and ADD semiconductor, a powerline
communication (PLC) IC company for smart metering,
lighting, and home/building automation applications, have
extended their agreement for distribution of ADD’s
powerline communication SoCs to a global franchise.
TTI, a global distributor of passive, interconnect, relay &
switch and discrete components, has announced the
appointment of Jamie Furness to the position of General
Manager for the UK, Ireland and South Africa.
Mouser Electronics and Luminus Devices announced a
global distribution agreement, enabling Mouser to bring
Luminus’ LEDs quickly to lighting design engineers and
buyers around the world. Recom Power, a supplier in the
design and manufacture of DC/DC and AC/DC converters,
switching regulators, and LED drivers also announced a
worldwide distribution alliance with Mouser Electronics.
Digi-Key announced the availability of electronic
components from Parallax Semiconductor. Initially the
company’s chips, such as a multicore MCU, were
primarily used in their own products. Digi-Key also
announced the addition of Axelsys to its listing of design
services providers’ online resource. Design services that
Axelsys provides include project management, design
reviews, system architecture development, high-speed PCB
design and layout, signal integrity, FPGA design, DSP
design, MCU design, software development, mechanical
engineering, industrial design, system cost reduction, and
to make the system more robust. Digi-Key has also
achieved the honour of being named TE Connectivity’s
2010 Global Catalogue Distributor of the Year.