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FRAMINGHAM, MA – Fourth quarter sales of servers fell 0.2% year-over-year to $14.5 billion, the first such drop since the first quarter of 2003, IDC said this week.

Worldwide unit shipment growth slowed to 10.6%. Volume systems grew 7.3% year-on-year

Revenue for midrange enterprise servers dropped 11.5% versus last year and high-end servers fell 1.7%.

"The volume server market continues to evolve as richer server configurations driven by both scale-out cluster implementations and scale-up server virtualization initiatives continue to drive increased customer spending," said Matthew Eastwood, program vice president of IDC's Worldwide Server Group. "However, even in the volume segment, the quarterly unit shipment growth of 11.5% was two-thirds the year-over-year unit growth rate observed in 4Q04, illustrating a transition toward more richly configured systems in the market."

IBM retained the top spot, with 38.4% share in factory revenue on a 0.8% rise in sales over a year ago. HP was next with a 26.8% share, with sales up 3.8%, followed by Dell (9.6% share, 7.3% revenue growth), Sun (8.2% share on a sales drop of 10.9%) and Fujitsu/Fujitsu-Siemens (4.3% share, on a 10.9% revenue decline).

HP was tops in shipments, with a 30.2% share, growing shipments 8.8% year over year. Dell, with a 23.3% share, up from 21.3%., was second.

LOUISVILLE -- Sypris Solutions today reported sales rose 9% year-on-year to $132.1 million for its fourth quarter. The net loss was $300,000, up from a loss of $800,000 a year ago.

For the year, Sypris reported revenue rose 23% to a record $522.8 million compared to $425.4 million for the prior year. Net income for the year was $5.3 million, down from compared to $8.3 million.

GARDEN GROVE, CA -- OK International, a maker of soldering and desoldering tools, has named Tom Seratti vice president of global sales and marketing.

Seratti has spent 25 years in electronics manufacturing. He previously ran Marshall Industries/Avnet Production Supply and Test, and was co-owner of SPI Westek, a manufacturer of ESD control products in Anaheim, CA.

ENDICOTT, NY – Endicott Interconnect and VisiLED have entered a development and manufacturing agreement for medical devices. EI’s Precision Equipment Manufacturing team will provide contract manufacturing services, including prototype fabrication, product development, manufacture and test of LED lights. The first devices produced by EI directly replace existing overhead operating room lights and will be available for sale in the second quarter of the year.

VisiLED develops LED-based lighting systems for use in surgical suites, medical and dental exam rooms. These devices replace current halogen and xenon bulb technology with smaller, LED light sources which reduce power consumption, heat generation and device weight, while providing greater light intensity and improved light color. Other products under development include an endoscope light, used for examination and photography within the human body, and a device for illuminating deep cavities during surgery.