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nalog Devices acquires UK based TTPCom's GSM/GPRS mobile phone modem software business for 23 million US Dollars.
May 03, 2006 13:08 (ElectronicsWeekly)
This deal gives Analog Devices the right to sub-license TTPCom software, allowing Analog Devices to sell a complete software and silicon package. 45 employees based in Cambridge, England will transfer from TTPCom to Analog Devices. The deal leaves around 600 staff at TTPCom.

MANHASSET, N.Y. — ATI Technologies Inc. has acquired Bitboys Oy, a privately held Finland-based graphics company, for $44 million.
Bitboys will be integrated into the Handheld Business Unit of ATI (Markham, Ontario), and form the nucleus for a key design centre for ATI in Europe.
The acquisition enhances ATI's product portfolio with a number of technologies, including OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics and OpenVG 1.0 2D vector graphics technologies optimized for high-volume mainstream mobile phones. These graphics cores will be supported by ATI's common software stack which covers its complete range of multimedia co-processors.
This unified software environment allows developers to easily create content for a range of devices and offers mobile phone manufacturers faster time to market.
"Bitboys dovetails into ATI perfectly," said Paul Dal Santo, GM of ATI's Handheld Business Unit, in a statement. "Handsets are transitioning to hardware acceleration for graphics and multimedia, and the Bitboys team will play a critical role as we drive this key inflection point to make ATI the platform of choice for content providers."

IDT has appointed Pietro Polidori as new Vice President for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).
May 02, 2006 10:25 (channel-e)
by: Jesper Olsson
Pietro Polidori, who has been working at IDT for 11 years, will be responsible for all operations within EMEA including direct sales and marketing. Polidori most recently worked as European Sales Director at IDT

Budapest, Hungary — Semiconductor market analysts are still under estimating how good a yeart 2006 could turn out to be according to Malcolm Penn, chairman and CEO of Future Horizons. Speaking at his company’s Annual International Electronics Forum, Penn was still confident that his forecast made in January of a growth in dollar sales of semiconductors topping 20% this year was realistic while unit sales would grow 12%. Other major analyst predictions are coming out showing an average growth of 8% with only one willing at present to break the 10% barrier.
Penn is bullish that a combination of an improvement of 4.9% in world GDP which the IMF upgraded from 4.3% last week, a rise in unit demand and a shortage of capacity, pushing prices up, will provide the catalyst for a good year. "All the evidence is strong and everything is in place - if it is not a strong year then the semiconductor industry does not deserve a strong year," says Penn.
No-one believes that the chip industry can bounce back says Penn and there is too much of the 'Ill see believe it when I see' attitude but by the time it becomes evident it will be too late too take advantage.
Penn say the recovery in the unit demand started last May while a recovery in the average selling price started in the third quarter of 2005. Last year is seen as a market correction not a recession with the second half coming on strong after a first half depressed by inventory purges. "Markets normally bounce back fast from a correction," according to Penn. While average selling prices (ASPs) have bottomed out, they take a time to recover, anything between 4 to 8 quarters after unit demand has improved

LONDON — Cavendish Kinetics NV, a 12 year-old company developing CMOS-compatible one-time programmable and reprogrammable memories using MEMS technology, has closed its second round of venture capital funding at $15.5 million dollars.
The money is set to be used to continue the development of Cavendish Kinetics’ Nanomech technology and expand its market presence among IDMs, foundries and fabless semiconductor companies, the company said.
The round was led by Tallwood Venture Capital (Palo Alto, Calif.) and Wellington Partners (Munich, Germany). First round investors Celtic House Venture Partners, Clarium Holdings Ltd., Torteval Investments Ltd. and a private investor are all taking part in the second round. Luis Arzubi from Tallwood Venture Capital and Bart Markus from Wellington Partners are joining the Cavendish board.
Cavendish (Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands), which was spun out of the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University, England in 1994 by Professor Charles Smith, has developed micromechanical memory elements, miniature relays, that it claims can be integrated into CMOS, or any other process technology. Cavendish been working with the Institut fur Mikroelektronik Stuttgart, in Germany, to build prototype memories and picked up $6.5 million in venture capital funding in 2001

LONDON — Firecomms Ltd., a compound semiconductor company that develops visible wavelength light sources, has announced it has closed a 9.6 million euro (about $12 million) round of funding with new and existing shareholders.

Firecomms raised 9.6 million euro
Firecomms (Cork, Ireland), founded in 2001 as a spinoff from Ireland’s National Microelectronics Rsearch Center in Cork, makes lasers and LEDs for optical data transmission and data capture using visible light over plastic optical fiber.
The money would enable the company to increase production of semiconductor VCSEL devices and fiber optic devices, including an automotive-grade fiber optic transceiver for in-car infotainment systems, Firecomms said. This funding also will support the expansion of Firecomms' product line, sales and marketing fulfillment, and support activities throughout its markets.
ACT Venture Capital of Dublin, and Alps Electric North America, a customer for Firecomms, led the finance round. Atlantic Bridge Ventures, the company's anchor investor, also invested in this round.
“This additional funding and new investors will enable us to take advantage of many high revenue opportunities in the giant consumer electronics and automotive markets,” said Declan O'Mahoney, chief executive officer of Firecomms in a statement.
“We are delighted with the progress Firecomms continues to make with strategic customers particularly in high-volume consumer and automotive markets,” said Brian Long, chief executive officer of Atlantic Bridge Ventures, in the same statement.