Semiconductor

SnapTrack Inc. last week announced a strategic partnership with Motorola Inc. under which it will license its personal location system to Motorola’s Semiconductor Products Sector. Motorola will use SnapTrack’s technology through a royalty-bearing license agreement to offer personal location services …

After coming off one of its worst years in history, the semiconductor industry continues to show signs of recovery. The industry finished last year with total sales of $125.6 billion, a decrease of 8.4 percent from year-end 1997 sales, according …

Analysts last week hoped Motorola Inc. would shed some light in its earnings conference call on whether it will need to raise more money or take additional charges to cover its Iridium L.L.C. debt exposure, but the company avoided any …

NEW YORK-Harris Corp. announced it is repositioning itself to become a pure communications equipment company and will spin off its Lanier Worldwide subsidiary to its stockholders, creating two separate companies-communications and office equipment. Harris’ near-term actions to reposition itself as …

SUNNYVALE, Calif.-Oki Semiconductor said it is taking steps to expand and strengthen its organization in Sunnyvale, Calif. As part of the expansion, Oki Semiconductor’s former general manager of the LSI Business Division, Yasuaki Ozawa, was appointed chairman and chief executive …

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-Motorola Inc.’s Semiconductor Products Sector announced a $5 million grant to establish the Motorola DigitalDNA Laboratory at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Mass. The DigitalDNA Laboratory will focus on linking smart products, such as set-top TV boxes, automobiles, …

AdiCom Wireless Inc. signed an agreement with Marconi Communications giving the company distribution rights to market and sell AdiCom’s wireless local loop products worldwide. Marconi will offer AdiCom’s WLL products and services under its brand name of MAARS 100 and …

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.-Motorola Inc. said it changed the operating segments it uses to report financial figures to coincide with organizational changes in its communications equipment business. Research and development expenditures now will be included as a separate line item on the …

VLSI Technology Inc. announced its board of directors adopted a new shareholder rights agreement and bylaw amendments to fend off a hostile bid from Royal Philips Electronics. Philips launched the bid for all of the outstanding common shares of VLSI …

Like their counterparts in the wireless service and infrastructure arenas, telecom equipment vendors are consolidating and reorganizing at an increasing pace. Most segments seem to be affected, from tower companies to semiconductor manufacturers. One segment that has been particularly active …

EAST FISHKILL, N.Y.-A new chip technology developed by IBM Corp. could lead to smaller electronic devices, including cellular phones and personal computers, said the company. The semiconductor technology IBM developed will allow complete electronic systems to be built on a …

LOWELL, Mass.-M/A-COM announced the launch of its online fab tour, a computer animated tour created by Show & Tell Inc. that illustrates and explains the processing, assembly, packaging and testing of M/A COM’s semiconductors. The tour is split into three …

PALO ALTO, Calif.-Watkins-Johnson Co.’s unaudited results for 1998 showed revenue of $212.2 million, down from $291.3 million reported in revenue for 1997. The company experienced a net loss for the year of $49.2 million, or $6.36 per share, compared with …

NEW YORK-Wave Systems Corp., San Jose, Calif., may possess some important answers to questions wireless carriers have about reducing customer-service costs, promoting prepaid calling and data communications and capitalizing on electronic commerce, while also preventing fraud. The company, founded in …

NEW YORK-Beware would-be smart card hackers, Schlumberger Test and Transactions, San Jose, Calif., has developed ‘SiShell’, a process that renders the chip likely to self-destruct if someone tampers with it. Now commercially available, SiShell allows wafer makers to place over …

NEW YORK-Perception equals reality for those who believe federal class-action securities fraud cases are filed almost daily against publicly traded companies. Last year’s tally of 235 companies named as defendants in this kind of lawsuit broke the prior record of …

BellSouth Cellular Corp. announced it will invest in designing software-defined radio technology, a move that could give momentum to the rest of the wireless industry to change the way handsets are produced. The idea of developing a wireless handset that …

SAN JOSE, Calif.-VLSI Technology Inc. reported fourth-quarter revenues of $137.9 million, an increase of 5.4 percent from third-quarter 1998, revenues of $130.8 million and a decrease of 28.5 percent from the $193 million reported for the same quarter a year …

Zetron Zetron Inc. launched the Model Z907 PCS Fault Finder, which provides fast notification of power amplifier and antenna problems at personal communications services sites. The PCS Fault Finder monitors forward radio-frequency power and antenna return loss in the 1.8 …

Motorola Inc. said it expects to meet Wall Street’s earnings expectations for the first quarter, though it remains cautious in light of last week’s currency devaluation in Brazil and the semiconductor industry’s recovery. Analysts say Motorola is cutting operating costs …

NEW YORK-Moody’s Investors Service Inc. is reviewing $400 million in Hyundai Semiconductor America debt for possible downgrade because merger talks between HSA and LG Semicon Co. Ltd. hit an impasse and failed to conclude before the Dec. 25 deadline imposed …

M/A-Com M/A-COM, a division of AMP Inc., announced a new family of DC-2 GHz GaAs Field Effect Transistor Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuit digital attenuators with integral Application Specific Integrated Circuit drivers. The attenuators in this family are multichip modules containing …

At the end of each year, the RCR editorial staff looks back on the news events that made RCR headlines and decides which were the most significant, industry-impacting stories of the past 12 months. Here are our picks for 1998. …

PALO ALTO, Calif.-Watkins-Johnson Company announced it completed the repurchase of 3,500,000 shares authorized by its board of directors. The repurchased shares are also retired, leaving 6,547,687 current outstanding shares. Watkins-Johnson specializes in radio frequency and semiconductor equipment.

The semiconductor industry is showing signs it could be emerging from a slump that has plagued it this year. The Asian economic crisis, coupled with a glut of semiconductor products in the market, has led the industry into one of …