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br> Thales and Diehl signed an agreement on the formation of Junghans Microtec combining their expertise in ammunition electronics and precision mechanics to establish one of the world’s leading fuze suppliers.

The company will specialize in the development, production and marketing of ammunition fuzes and safety devices. Following approval by the anti-trust authorities, the corporate division Diehl VA Systeme and Thales subsidiary TDA will hold 51% and 49% of the company shares respectively.

Junghans Microtec will concentrate its resources at La Ferté Saint Aubin, France, and at its new headquarters in Duningen-Seedorf, Germany, where Diehl is currently investing in the expansion and modernization of its facilities. With initially 350 employees, the new company intends to achieve annual sales of €70 M.

Add a new portable, multimedia application to the ranks of growth opportunities for the semiconductor industry: Edutainment toys, says In-Stat. The opportunity includes LCDs, MCUs, Flash and various specialty devices. "The explosion in the edutainment toy segment is taking place as Moore's Law has enabled an impressive amount of processing power to be placed in the hands of vendors of consumer education devices," said Stephanie Ethier, In-Stat analyst. According to the high-tech market research firm, the worldwide market for edutainment toys reached $1.7 billion in 2005, and this figure is projected to hit $5.5 billion by 2010. In-Stat believes that a typical edutainment product will have an overall BOM of approximately $60 in 2006. The lion's share of the BOM will be made up by LCDs, MCUs, Flash, and various specialty devices.

Edgeware (Stockholm, Sweden), a start-up company that is offering servers for video-on-demand based on flash rather than magnetic memory, has raised 18 million Swedish krone (about $2.4 million).

Worldwide PC shipments grew by a healthy 12.6% in the first quarter of 2006. Although PC shipment growth slowed from 15.1% in 2004 and 16% in 2005, the market continues to exceed expectations and the outlook for 2006 has improved, according to IDC.

The outlook for shipment growth in 2006 increased to 10.8% from a March projection of 10.5%. The outlook for 2007 was boosted nearly 1% to 11.7% and 2008 growth projections also increased slightly. Although growth rates for 2009 and 2010 were reduced slightly, total volumes remain higher than earlier projections because of the higher near-term growth. Total shipment volume is expected to reach 284.5 million in 2008 and 333.7 million in 2010 with a value of US$253.9 billion, and US$271.1 billion, respectively.

According to IDC, worldwide broadband subscriptions will nearly double in five years, expanding from a little more than 205 million in 2005 to nearly 400 million in 2010. DSL remains the leading installed broadband technology globally, accounting for 67% of subscriptions in 2010.

French start-up Tedemis, a partner for mobile manufacturers to penetrate new markets and for brands to create value by developing a new territory in the booming market of mobile handsets and services, named Simon Gazikian as CEO. Previously, Simon Gazikian was sales vice-president a Esmertec.