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WASHINGTON, DC – Intel today announced plans to spend $7 billion over the next two years to build advanced manufacturing facilities in the US. The investment funds deployment of Intel's 32nm manufacturing technology and represents Intel's largest-ever investment for a new manufacturing process.

MELVILLE, NY -- Arrow Electronics reported fourth-quarter net income fell 62% year-over-year to $43.2 million on a 7.5% drop in revenue to $4.09 billion.

Excluding the company's acquisition of Logix, revenue would have falled 12%.

The company guided for first-quarter revenue of $3 billion to $3.6 billion.

In a statement, chairman and chief executive William E. Mitchell said, "We expect the marketplace to continue to be unsettled and that visibility will remain limited most likely through 2009."

SANTA CLARA, CA – Agilent Technologies plans to exit the electronics inspection systems business by the end of March, the company announced today. The company deferred comment on the number of persons affected or potential financial charges.

HERNDON, VA – The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative is surveying the industry to gauge the current adoption rate of boundary scan and identify any impediments to widespread use.

This results will be used to help iNEMI improve test implementation and coverage for electronics products, the organization said. iNEMI encourages the global supply chain to participate in the online survey.

“We want to hear about people’s experiences with boundary scan,” said Steve Butkovich, structural test manager for Cisco and co-chair of the iNEMI Boundary Scan Adoption Project. “We’re looking for input from the people who would use boundary scan, such as PCB designers, test engineers, engineering managers or design-for-test consultants, and from IC designers who would integrate boundary scan into their products. If they use boundary scan, we want to know how well it works – or doesn’t work; and if they do not use it, we would like to know why not.

The survey is available through the end of February at inemi.org/boundary_scan_survey.

CARLSBAD, CA – Palomar Technologies has posted its best year since 2000.

“We exceeded our sales, booking and profit targets in 2008, and are carrying a strong backlog into the current year,” said Bruce W. Hueners, president and CEO.

This past summer, Palomar Management bought out the original investor group that spun the company out of Hughes Aircraft in 1995.

The firm provides automated precision microelectronics assembly equipment and contract assembly services.

JACKSON, MI – Sparton Corp. reported a second-quarter net loss of $2.8 million on sales of $54.5 million for the period ended Dec. 31. The net loss increased 50% from a year ago, while sales were down about 0.5%.

MACAO – Top 20 EMS provider Nam Tai Electronics reported fourth-quarter sales fell 9.6% to $169 million as the company fell to a net loss for the December period.

For the quarter, the net loss was $14.5 million, down from income of $9.6 million a year ago. The company took $17.9 million in charges for goodwill and layoff compensation. Gross profit fell 8.7% from 11.3% in 2007.

For the year, the company reported sales of $623 million, down 20.2% year-over-year. The net profit was down 56% to $30.6 million.

At quarter’s end, Nam Tai had $237 million in cash on hand, down from $272.5 million

Telecommunications component assembly sales – Nam Tai’s largest market – fell 11% from 2007 on slower mobile device sales and pricing pressure. LCD sales fell 27.2%, and consumer electronics were down 1.4% during the quarter.

COLD SPRING HARBOR, NY – The overall electronics systems market will decline more than 12% in 2009, the largest single-year decline ever, Prismark Partners said today.

The drop would equate to loss of more than $170 billion in revenue year-over-year.

JASPER, IN -- Kimball International today reported net sales fell 6% from a year ago to $327.6 million and income from continuing operations rose 93% to $8.2 million for its December quarter.

ST. LOUIS -- EMS provider LaBarge reported December quarter net sales rose 2% year-over-year to $68.2 million. Net earnings declined to $249,000, from $3.4 million last year, on a writedown of inventory and debts from a large customer.

ZALAEGERSZEG, HUNGARY – Flextronics will sack 400 workers from its plant here by the end of March, according to published reports. The cuts will bring the total number of recent layoffs to 1,400, including contract workers, Zalai HÃrlap reports.

The news daily quoted Flextronics spokesman MÃ¡rk HetÃ©nyi as citing a sharp decline in orders.

The cuts include 130 staff in operations and 270 administrative workers.

The site employs 3,700 workers, not including 1,500 to 1,800 contract laborers, the news daily reported.

TAIPEI -- Worldwide shipments of netbooks are expected snare a 17.2% share of the overall notebook PC market in 2009, according to a new research report.

Netbook OEMs shipped 14.6 million units in 2008, a number that's expected to climb to 26.3 million units this year, research firm Displaybank asserts.

Asustek Computer and Acer own the lion's share of the market, with more than 70% of shipments in 2008, the firm said. The top five makers of netbooks are Acer (37.2%), Asus (33.2%), HP (7.5%), MSI (4.8%) and Intel (2.2%).