| Vanu Opens Marketing Center in Delhi/NCR |
Source: Nikkei Electronics Asia, March 19 2008 |
| http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp |
Vanu Inc, a developer of software radio solutions for cellular operators based in Massachusetts,
has opened an office in Delhi/NCR to market its solutions tailored to emerging wireless
markets, particularly to India's rural communities. |
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| Synopsys to pay $227M for Synplicity |
| Source: Bolaji Ojo, EETimes, March 20 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
Synopsys Inc. said it has agreed to acquire rival semiconductor IP and software vendor
Synplicity Inc. for approximately $227 million in a deal that would greatly expand its offerings
to the communications, military/aerospace and consumer electronics markets. Synopsys said it
will pay $8 per share for all of Synplicity's outstanding common shares, representing a premium
of slightly more than 50 percent on Synplicity's stock price of $5.32 just ahead of the
announcement.
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| Wipro aligns efforts on aerospace target |
| Source: Rick Merritt, EETimes, March 20 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
|
Indian outsourcing company Wipro Ltd. is attempting to fly a handful of design efforts and
partnerships into formation to make an assault on the rapidly growing aerospace market in
India and around the region. |
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| Analyst: Best all around for Infineon to kill Qimonda |
| Source:Bolaji Ojo, EETimes, March 20 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
A semiconductor industry analyst has called on Infineon Technologies AG to shutter Qimonda
AG, its majority-owned and money-losing DRAM division, arguing that such a move has become
necessary to help the company focus better on re-energizing its remaining business units, as
well as help ameliorate the general DRAM oversupply situation. |
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| Intel hikes dividends payment |
|
Source: Bolaji Ojo, EETimes, March 20 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
Intel Corp. said its board of directors has approved a 10 percent hike in the company's
quarterly dividends payment, boosting payout to investors even as the company continued to
pour money into a share buyback program. |
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| iSuppli ranking reduces estimate of 2007 chip market |
| Source: Peter Clarke, EETimes, March 20 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
|
Surprising weakness in the memory market in Q4 2007 has caused iSuppli Corp. (El Segundo,
Calif.) to derate its estimate of the global semiconductor market in 2007. In a preliminary
estimate given in November 2007 iSuppli predicted the global chip market would grow by 4.1 percent in 2007. It has now said that prediction was wrong and that the market grew only 3.3
percent in 2007 to $268.9 billion. |
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| KLA-Tencor's Levy joins the board of OptimalTest |
| Source: Amir Ben-Artzi, EETimes, March 21 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
|
Kenneth Levy, founder and chairman emeritus of semiconductor manuafacturing equipment
company KLA-Tencor Corp., is going to join the board of directors of a relatively unknown start
up called OptimalTest Ltd. |
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| EE Times lauds ADI's Stata |
| Source: Junko Yoshida, EETimes, March 21 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
|
Ray Stata understands the strategic value of silence. "Generally, if you really listen, the story is
there," he says, and it becomes "quite clear" what you need to do. That philosophy--along with
his acceptance of the fact that he "could be wrong"--has earned the Analog Devices Inc.
chairman the respect of his colleagues, and contributed to his earning the 2008 EE Times ACE
Award for Lifetime Achievement. |
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| How Taiwan's presidential elections will impact the semiconductor industry |
| Source: James Montgomery, Solid State Technology, March 21 2008 |
| http://sst.pennnet.com |
|
This weekend Taiwan will elect a new president, and based on each candidate's platform -- and
what each has promised to industry interests -- significant changes could be on the horizon for
the semiconductor industry in Asia. A key platform issue for both Taiwan presidential
candidates -- Frank Hsieh of the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and Ma Yingjeou
(former mayor of Taipei) of the Kuomintang party (KMT) -- is liberalizing relations with
China, particularly in terms of trade and business. (It's worth noting that KMT won 75% of seats
in the January primary elections, perhaps indicating fatigue with the incumbent DPP party.)
Included in this discussion is what to do about the semiconductor industries in China and
Taiwan -- whether and how to loosen and accelerate Taiwan firms' ability to open up shop in
China. The difference is in how fast/extensive those changes will be. With Hsieh, changes
would be slower and steadier; if KMT's Ma wins, look for more dramatic decisions in a shorter
period of time. |
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| Taiwan Wants to Focus on Building Its Own High-Tech Brands |
| Source: Cindy Sui, The New York Times, March 22 2008 |
| http://www.nytimes.com |
|
Mike Liang earns the equivalent of $37,500 a year, owns a four-bedroom apartment and can
afford to send his two daughters to English tutorial schools. Like other employees at the
Hsinchu Science Park, Mr. Liang, a marketing manager for a semiconductor company, is the
envy of many on this island, where average annual salaries stagnate at around $17,000 and high
property prices keep many married couples living with their parents. |
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| BRIC nations to transform global business landscape by 2018: Study |
| Source: Business Standard, March 24 2008 |
| http://www.ibef.org |
|
India, along with emerging market peers China, Brazil and Russia, is expected to transform the global business landscape and will have a greater influence on the markets across the world by
2018, a study says. The study by UK-based Chartered Management Institute looking ahead to
2018, predicted what the world of work and management would look like and examined how
organisations can prepare for it. |
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| Chip industry |
| Source: Kirk Ladendorf, American-Statesman, March 24 2008 |
| http://www.statesman.com |
|
Two decades ago, Austin's Sematech research consortium started proving that fiercely
competitive companies in the chip industry could work together to solve common problems
that threatened to slow the pace of technical innovation. These days, Sematech keeps doing its
work in Austin and Albany, N.Y., with an even broader group of companies, but it is just one of
several big collaborative efforts in the semiconductor industry. |
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| Reporter's notebook: A tour through Bangalore |
| Source: Rick Merritt, EETimes, March 24 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
|
The contrasts are the first things that strike you here in this city aiming to become the next
global center of electronics design. Cows lumber in the dust past new glass and granite office
buildings shimmering in the heat, pausing to dine on piles of garbage in the street. Travel just
40 kilometers outside town to the so-called Electronics City still being built and the contrasts
are even starker. Here the many low rise offices randomly sprinkled around Bangalore bloom
into giant corporate campuses behind castle-like walls. |
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| Plenty of companies vie for design services in India |
| Source: Rick Merritt, EETimes, March 24 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
|
Electronics companies are embracing the philosophy that they must find partners to help
conceive and design new products as quickly as possible. That's driving a wave of business in
R&D services for a number of Indian companies. |
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| TSMC stays on leading edge but cuts its risk with 40-nm 'half node' |
| Source: Mark LaPedus, EETimes, March 24 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
|
Seeking to stay one step ahead of its rivals, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. has
unveiled what it claims is the industry's first 40-nanometer foundry process for leading-edge
designs. The process is an interim, "half node" step toward the 32-nm process node, which
TSMC expects to ramp starting late next year. |
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| IC Insights sticks with 9% growth forecast for 2008 IC market |
| Source: Peter Clarke, EETimes, March 24 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
|
Market research firm is sticking with its forecast of 9 percent IC market growth for all of 2008,
but has said that the first quarter sequential decline in the market is likely to reveal more
about the state of the 2008 market. IC Insights' current forecast is based on the expectation
that the IC market will decline 4 percent 1Q08/4Q07, declining another 2 percent in
2Q08/1Q08, increasing 15 percent in 3Q08/2Q08, and growing 3 percent in 4Q08/3Q08.
If the lower the sequential drop in Q1 the worse the prognosis for the market in 2008 as a
whole. If a recession has hit the U.S., and other global regions also see their economies slowing throughout 2008, then the IC market may actually decline in 2008, a rare event in the history
of the semiconductor market. |
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| Silicon Valley feels the power of the sun |
| Source: Chris Nuttall, The Financial Times, March 24 2008 |
| http://www.ft.com |
|
Applied Materials is winning itself a place in the sun with a high-stakes gamble on expansion
into the solar industry. As the world’s biggest maker of equipment for the semiconductor industry,
Silicon Valley-based Applied Materials is used to providing tools that help others to be
creative. But a $1.9bn (£959m, €1.2bn)factory order, understood to be from a Chinese
consortium, impressed analysts this month and showed Applied becoming more directly
involved with solar. |
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| From seeds to ASICs: Wipro's journey typical of India's design industry |
| Source: Rick Merritt, EETimes, March 24 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
|
The story of Wipro, one of India's many outsourcing conglomerates, is as good example as any
of where India's tech industry stands on its journey to become a hub of electronics design.
On Dec. 28, 1945—two years before India became an independent country—Wipro was formed
as West India Vegetable Products Ltd. to sell seeds. As it grew, it branched out into crushed
seeds, then cooking oils and, later, soaps. With its profits, it invested in a hydraulics business—
which, with a recent acquisition in Sweden, has now become the second largest in the world.
In the early 1970s, India's then-communist government famously forced multinational
companies such as Coca-Cola and IBM out of the country. Taxes on imported electronics
systems soared to 300 percent overnight, opening the door for Wipro and other growing
conglomerates to buy components from overseas, then assemble their own computers and
other gear for the local market. |
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| India to become second largest wireless network in world |
| Source: The Financial Express, March 25 2008 |
| http://www.livemint.com |
|
Continuing its growth momentum, the country is set to surpass US to become the second
largest wireless network in the world with a subscriber base of over 300 million by April, the
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said on Monday. |
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| Slowing global economy threatens PC shipments |
| Source: Antone Gonsalves, EETimes, March 25 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu |
|
Gartner's concerns include a deepening U.S. recession, a possible slowdown in China's economy
following the Beijing Olympics, and the elevated price of oil. Worldwide PC shipments are
forecast to reach 293 million units this year, a 10.9% jump from 2007, a market research firm
said Tuesday. But economic problems could emerge that drive growth down into the single
digits. |
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| Moser Baer Photo Voltaic Gearing Up For $150-Million Nasdaq IPO? |
| Source: VC Circle, March 25 2008 |
| http://www.vccircle.com/ |
|
The solar energy arm of optical storage disc maker Moser Baer is looking for a initial public
offer (IPO) in Nasdaq, according to a Reuters report. Morgan Stanley is probably one of the underwriters appointed by Moser Baer Photo Voltaic (MBPV), which manufactures solar cells
and modules, for the proposed IPO. MBPV, the wholly owned subsidiary of Moser Baer, is
believed to have kickstarted the listing process, but it’s likely that it will not rush with the IPO
given volatile market conditions. MBPV had recently said that it would invest $150 million on
expansion projects and was looking at an overseas listing to fund this. |
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| Analog market to grow 10% in 2008, says analyst |
| Source: Peter Clarke, EETimes, March 25 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
|
After falling back by 1 percent in 2007 the analog semiconductor market is set to grow by 10
percent to rise above $40 billion in 2008, according to Databeans Inc. After that the market
will kick on to reach $69 billion in 2013 for a five year compound annual growth rate of 11
percent. This growth should be fuelled by continued demand for wireless products as well as
healthy revenue growth for analog power products. Together these segments account for over
40 percent of the entire 2007 analog market. |
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| Tata Motors to Buy Jaguar and Land Rover |
| Source: The New York Times, March 26 2008 |
| http://www.nytimes.com |
|
India's Tata Motors Ltd will buy luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover from
Ford Motor Co for about $2.3 billion in cash, the companies said on Wednesday. The
transfer of ownership to Tata Motors is expected to close by the end of the next quarter,
subject to regulatory approvals, they said. |
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| Motorola's breakup provides opportunities for competitors |
| Source: Richard Martin, EETimes, March 26 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
|
Motorola's divide-to-conquer strategy, announced Wednesday by CEO Greg Brown, may give the
beleaguered handset maker the opportunity to right its leaking ship. What it doesn't do is
change the fundamentals the iconic Schaumburg, Ill., communications company faces in an
increasingly globalized and competitive mobile-device market. And it leaves the door open for
up-and-coming handset makers to make their move. |
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| Gartner: In short term, WiMax a long shot in India |
| Source: K.C. Krishnadas, EETimes, March 26 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.eu |
|
Lack of PC penetration and the lack of policy guidelines for mobile WiMax means this
technology will not have many takers in India for the next few years, research firm Gartner
said. The Indian government may be pushing WiMax technology especially for broadband
connectivity in rural areas, but the country will have only 6.9 million mobile and fixed WiMax
connections by the end of 2011, as the country-specific mobile broadband framework makes a
national rollout too costly. |
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| Innovative Semi CEO hatches incubator fund for Asia, eastern Europe |
| Source: K.C. Krishnadas, EETimes, March 26 2008 |
| http://www.eetimes.com |
|
Nabil Takla, founder and chief executive of Innovative Semiconductor Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.),
is teaming with a few like-minded semiconductor industry executives to start a tech incubator
fund that will assist companies in Asia and eastern Europe. The fund will be based in California but will have local offices in India, China, eastern Europe and western Asia. The still-to-benamed
organization, the fund corpus of which was not disclosed, will nurture entrepreneurial
engineers who lack the market exposure, mentors and money to commercialize technologies on
their own. The organization will help formulate business plans and marketing strategies for the
startups. |
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