Amphenol sales were up nearly 60% year-on-year, with strength in IT and data communications
In sum – what to know:
On the hunt – Amphenol’s sales were up nearly 60% year-on-year; the company has purchased cellular infrastructure and testing assets in recent years and continues to look for more acquisitions.
Amphenol, which counts test assets and cellular infrastructure among its business units, reported record sales for the second quarter of the year, seeing an increase of 57% year-on-year to $5.7 billion for the quarter.
While most of that — 41% — came from organic growth, the company has also been on an acquisition spree over the last several years and continues to maintain an active acquisition program as part of its strategy. Amphenol has business units that include the PCTel antenna and test equipment company, plus cellular DAS and outdoor network assets that were formerly part of CommScope. Most recently, it closed in May on the $120 million purchase of radio frequency component designer and manufacturer Narda-MITEQ, which produces active RF interconnect components for the defense market.
Amphenol President and CEO R. Adam Norwitt noted that the company saw particularly strong results in IT and data communications during the quarter.
“The revolution in electronics continues to accelerate, with new innovations creating exciting growth opportunities for Amphenol across each of our diversified end markets. In turn, we have expanded our range of high-technology interconnect products, both through our organic innovation efforts as well as through our successful acquisition program,” Norwich said, adding: “Our ongoing drive to leverage [our] competitive advantage and thereby create sustained financial strength has established an excellent base for the Company’s future performance.”
Amphenol expects that its sales for the coming quarter are expected to be between $5.4 billion-$5.5 billion, up 34-36% year-on-year.
In other test news:
–Emerson has enabled new artificial intelligence capabilities in its NI test software. Its AI advisor, dubbed Nigel, is the company’s “first step in integrating test-optimized AI technology into its … portfolio of software and automation products,” the company said, and will help to address increasing test complexity across a number of vertical markets.
Nigel “enables users to ask questions via plain language prompts to get detailed suggestions for utilizing hundreds of functions, all while protecting user data through a secure cloud platform,” according to Amphenol, which launched the AI assistant during this year’s NI Connect event. Emerson plans to integrate Nigel across other test software products and said that the AI will get smarter and more helpful as Emerson refines the use of LLMs for test and measurement tasks.
“The launch of Nigel AI Advisor represents another game-changing NI innovation that will redefine what is possible with test and measurement,” said Ritu Favre, president of Emerson’s test and measurement business. “Nigel reduces test complexity, enabling engineers to focus on their own innovation and business goals.”
Emerson purchased NI in 2023.
–Rohde & Schwarz said that it has verified Qualcomm Technologies’ implementation of Next Generation eCall (NG eCall) on the company’s Snapdragon Auto 5G Modem-RF system.
eCall is a system for vehicles to automatically make calls to emergency services when an accident is detected, and it is mandated in all new cars sold in the European Union. The tech has had to switch over to 4G/5G connectivity as 2G/3G networks have been turned down considered NG eCall, and testing has therefore expanded to include eCall over IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). The EU has mandated that NG eCall systems will be required as of January 1, 2026.
–Keysight Technologies debuted what it described as a “major enhancement” to its PXE Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) receiver. The upgraded receiver now has an extended Time Domain Scan (TDS) with a “real-time, gapless” measurement capability up to 1 gigahertz of measurement bandwidth, according to the test company, which said that this enables faster diagnostics and workflows for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing.
Keysight said that for device manufacturers, EMC certification testing is “rapidly becoming a bottleneck” and intermittent EMC issues are difficult to identify and address — something that the expanded measurement bandwidth is expected to help with.
–Anritsu has added new software options for its flagship Radio Communication Test Station MT8000A to support 3GPP Release 17 testing, including 1024QAM modulation in the downlink and and transmission switching in the uplink.
