Coreco results "better than expected"
Coreco (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) reported a 2% revenue increase for the second quarter ending June 30 of $4.9 million, over $4.8 million in the first quarter of 2002. But revenue decreased 36% compared to $7.6 million for the second quarter of 2001. Net earnings climbed to $275,728 over net earnings of $163,573 in the first quarter of 2002 and a net loss of $608 in the second quarter of 2001. "Our results this quarter are better than we expected," commented CEO Keith Reuben. "On a sequential basis, revenues show a small increase for the second quarter in a row and our profitability has doubled despite our significant investment in IPD. We are also beginning to see the fruit of our efforts to find new markets for our OEM products following the downturn in the semiconductor industry: 11 of our 12 design-wins this quarter came from new applications ."
Eurodisplay 2002 to envision the future
Eurodisplay, the triennial technical conference and exhibition devoted to research and technology in electronic information displays, will be held Oct. 1–4 at the Acropolis Convention Center in Nice, France. Keynote addresses by Bruce Berkoff, executive vice president for marketing for L.G. Philips in Seoul, Korea, and George Metakides, director of directorate E (Essential Information Society Technologies and Infrastructures) of the European Commission's Information Society Directorate General will present complementary visions of a world increasingly characterized by pervasive computing and display-.centric environments. Berkoff will explore the market and technology forces driving the new display-centric world, and discuss what this might mean for "display portals" of the future. Metakides will review a number of display technologies funded through the EC's Fifth Community Framework Programme (FP), which expires at the end of this year, and discuss the objectives of the Sixth FP, which will run from 2003 to 2006.
Adept acquires control of Meta
Adept Technology (San Jose, CA), has signed a letter of intent to acquire a controlling interest in privately held MetaControls Technologies ("Meta"), located in Morrisville, NC, in a common stock transaction. "Combining the Meta product line of subcompact motion controllers/motor drivers and machine-vision cameras that are networked together via the IEEE1394 (FireWire) high-speed serial bus, with Adept's software and controls has already resulted in proposal activity to address the complete controls needs of targeted major OEM customers," said Brian Carlisle, chairman and CEO of Adept. "The proposed acquisition would extend Adept's product line to include low-cost, low-power, FireWire controllers and cameras allowing us to address the extremely cost competitive, but rapidly growing, motion control market in China."
Optomec reports first quarter growth and profit
Optomec (Albuquerque, NM), reported a net income of $90,000 on revenues of $1.4 million for its first quarter of 2002, representing more than 50% growth over first quarter 2001. Optomec also reported an increase in commercial activity from the promotion of its M3D technology, which is used for the additive fabrication of microelectronic components and interconnects. The company is working with companies such as Hewlett Packard, Honeywell, BAE, and Medtronic to develop specific end-product applications, and will introduce its first M3D system later this year. "We believe this technology will play an important role in optimizing the size-performance-cost ratio of many products in the telecommunications, electronics, and even medical markets,"said David Ramahi, president and CEO of Optomec. M3D is a manufacturing approach for production of mesoscale (10 to 100 µm) structures, such as microelectronic components, high-density interconnects, MEMS devices, flat panel displays, fuel cells, and biosensors.
Hassaun A. Jones-Bey
Also in the news . . .
Marconi (London, England) has sold Marconi Applied Technologies (MAT; Chelmsford, England) to the existing management of MAT and venture capitalist 3i for $113 million. Following the management buyout, MAT has been renamed E2V Technologies. The company will continue to focus on designing and manufacturing RF microwave, imaging, and sensor components and subsystems for the industrial, defense, medical, scientific, and broadcast communications markets. . . . Summit Imaging (Colorado Springs, CO) has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Ballistic Defense Organization to develop a high-.performance CCD-based imaging system for the inspection of MEMS. Summit's new imaging system couples proprietary wavefront coded optics with a high-frame-rate, low-noise camera to provide an extremely large depth of focus. According to Summit's president, David Gardner, preliminary testing of the system has allowed researchers to optically inspect MEMS in a way that was previously only possible through the use of scanning electron microscopes.