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News

ELKHART, IN -- CTS Corp. today announced second-quarter revenues of $165.9 million, up 5% increase from a year ago. related tax expense and the reversal of certain reserves.

" We had a record number of design wins for electronic components in infrastructure applications, secured our first production award from Honda and added several new EMS customers," said Donald Schwanz, chairman and chief executive.

CTS maintaied prior full-year guidance of 6 to 8% sales growth.

For the quarter capital expenditures were $3.4 million, or 2% of sales, and free cash flow was $11.4 million. The full-year capital expenditures are expected to be $18 million to $20 million. Free cash flow was $20,000 in the first quarter, and $10.8 million in the second quarter last year.

The new Czech Republic facility of CTS began operations during the quarter. Production will be increased gradually throughout the year to meet business growth and better serve automotive OEMs in that region.

EMS sales were $94.2 million, up $2.4 million year-on-year and $11.3 million sequentially. Operating income from EMS operations were $2.5 million.

SAN JOSE -- Sanmina-SCI reported third-quarter revenue of $2.71 billion, up 1.5% sequentially but down 4.2% from a year ago.

A special committee of the company's board and an independent outside legal counsel are reviewing stock option administration policies and practices dating to Jan. 1, 1997. As such, the company did not provide detailed earnings financial information for the quarter.

NEENAH, WI -- Plexus Corp.'s net income was a record $25.1 million on a 27% gain in revenues for the period ended July 1. The EMS firm reported a record $397.4 million for the quarter. Sequential growth in the third quarter was exceptional. Gross margins expanded 50 basis points sequentially to 11.5% of revenues, and operating margins rose 75 basis points to 6% of revenues.

The company will close its facility in Maldon, England, to reduce manufacturing capacity and relocate the programs to a facility in Kelso, Scotland, by the end of 2006 or early in 2007. About 77 employees will be laid off.

MILPITAS, CA -- Electronics manufacturing services provider Solectron Corp. today announced its Fremont NPI facility has received ISO 13485:2003 medical certification.

The standard specifies requirements for a quality management system for regulatory purposes in the manufacture of medical devices.

The Fremont plant, which Solectron operates under the name FinePitch, is the seventh company site to gain the certification. The others are Charlotte,NC; Scotland; Quebec; Suzhou, China; and two in Singapore.

SAN JOSE -- Flextronics last night reported fiscal first-quarter net sales from continuing operations rose 6% to $4.06 billion, while GAAP net income rose 44% to $85 million. Both numbers topped previous estimates.

Sequentially net sales from continuing operations increased 15%, and GAAP operating margin improved 180 basis points, for the period ended June 30.

"There has been a reacceleration of significant growth in our core EMS business, which includes design, vertically-integrated manufacturing services, components and logistics," said chief executive Mike McNamara.

SAN CLEMENTE, CA -- Test and inspection OEM YESTech has opened a sales and tech support branch in Alton, Hampshire, UK.

The office will provide service to YESTech's European representatives and customers. YESTech Europe handles most European countries, the Middle East and South Africa.

"YESTech prides itself on its exceptional level of customer support and in providing local help with applications," commented Don Miller, YESTech president. "Adding further backup within the European time zone is another example of this continued commitment to bring all of our support capability to a local focus, world wide."

NEW YORK -- Dover Corp. last night said it discontinued seven businesses during its just-ended quarter, including five from Dover Technologies and one from Dover Electronics. The discontinued businesses include Universal Instruments, Hover-Davis, Vitronics Soltec and Alphasem.

DEK, the screen printer OEM, and Everett-Charles Technologies, the semiconductor and PCB test unit, and OK International were not among those companies put on the block.

In 2005, the five businesses had combined revenue of $580.2 million and earnings of $26.7 million. To-date this year the companies have joint earnings of $9.3 million on sales of $291.8 million.

BINGHAMTON, NY -- Universal Instruments and Hover-Davis are about to be acquired, the companies said today in a press statement.

Without identifying the potential buyer, the companies said the prospective owners "are established businesses with strong track records in technology markets."

FREMONT, CA -- Three men robbed about $200,000 worth of flash memory cards from a local software company last Friday, police said yesterday.

The crime echoes an incident that took place recently in nearby Milpitas.

In the Friday incident, an Ampro Systems employee was in the company parking lot with nine boxes of computer memory cards he was about to unload. Two men accosted him, and stashed the boxes in a getaway car driven by a third man.

The car was identified as a light-blue or gray Chrysler Town and Country minivan with no license plates.

Two days earlier, at an unidentified high-tech business in Milpitas, two men were seen near the freight dock of the company. The men were apparently scared off by employees, police said. That indicident took place about 2:35 p.m. The car was described as a light-blue or gray van, which had the skull and crossbones on the back license plate area.

"They're possibly targeting this county and other counties,'' a police spokesman said.

TAIPEI -- Foxconn Electronics will produce more than one million notebook computers for Sony this year, the majority share on the Japan consumer electronics outsourced PCs.

Asian media source DigiTimes reported sources at Taiwan notebook makers as saying that the electronics manufacturing services provider will produce more than half of Sony's outsourced orders in 2006.

LONDON – The UK Department of Trade and Industry yesterday issued a timetable for implementing the WEEE Directive and “takeback” of electronics products by producers and distributors.

In a so-called Consultation Document, the DTI proposed a national distributor takeback program under which network of designated collection facilities would be established.

Elektrotryck, said to be the largest PCB fabricator in Sweden, has declared bankruptcy. The company said a large increase in orders wasn't enough to avoid the filing.

"To survive through the summer holidays we needed a larger billing that we now have managed therefore we now have to take this step", Elektrotryck's owner and CEO Anders Björsell reportedly told an online journal. "Hopefully a solution can be found that would lead to that the business will continue which would be great for the Swedish industry."

Elektrotryck suppliers telecom equipment to Nordic OEMs. The company is said to supply about 25% of Sweden's bare boards. The company was founded 40- years ago.