• Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI; Mountain View, CA.) reported that the North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted record orders in November 1999 and a Book-to-Bill ratio of 1.10. A book-to-bill of 1.10 means $110 in orders were received for each $100 worth of products shipped. The three-month average of worldwide shipments in November 1999 was $1.55 billion. The figure is four percent above the October 1999 level, and is 69 percent above the November 1998 shipments level of $913 million. The three-month average of bookings in November 1999 was $1.70 billion. The booking figure is six percent above October 1999 and 122 percent above the $767 million posted in November 1998. The bookings figure is the highest recorded to date, four percent above the previous cycle high of $1.63 billion in November 1997 and just above the previous record high of $1.69 billion posted in February 1996. The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving average bookings to three-month moving average shipments for the North American semiconductor equipment industry. Shipments and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.
• Virage Logic Corp. (Fremont, CA.) and Mentor Graphics Corp. (Wilsonville, OR.) signed an agreement to transfer the assets of the Mentor Graphics physical library business to Virage Logic. This agreement will transfer assets of the physical library division and the technology is licensed to Virage Logic.
• Xyratex (Irvine, CA.) completed the acquisition of a majority interest in Logic Innovations, Inc. (San Diego, CA.), a broadcast technology and design services company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The future plan will utilize the strengths of both companies to expand the current product line and to develop a new range of digital broadcast solutions. Logic Innovations provided design services for the development of the Xyratex XMM-1000, a network-attached MPEG transport stream monitor. The XMM-1000 will join the Logic Innovations' IP Encapsulator Data Gateway (IPEDG) and Data Stream Transport Systems (DSTS) product offerings.
• Palmchip Corp. (San Jose, CA.) reported that Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Murray Hill, NJ.) has licensed Palmchip's Quickconfig memory controller for its system-on-a-chip (SOC) design activities. Palmchip introduced the Quickconfig memory controller in June 1999. The licensing agreement allows Lucent to integrate Palmchip's Quickconfig memory controller into a multitude of ASIC and ASSP configurations for applications such as mass storage, networking, wireless, handheld devices, multimedia and Internet appliances. The controller is compatible with Palmchip's channel-based Coreframe architecture.
• The IPC - Association Connecting Electronics Industries reported that the US market for electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry increased 21.5 percent in 1999, to $27.4 billion, according to information released in its 1999 report on Market for Electronics Manufacturing Services. The report included 66 companies that assemble electronics on a contract basis. These companies had combined sales of $11.3 billion, representing 41 percent of the total estimated EMS market. It found that computers and communications continue to be the largest markets for EMS providers, accounting for 53.4 percent and 26.8 percent of total 1999 sales, respectively. 17 percent of the survey respondents indicated that 66 percent of sales came from existing business in 1999, 23 percent came from new business and 11 percent from new customers. IPC predicts the US EMS market will continue to grow more than 20 percent annually, as it has since the late 1980s, topping $59 billion in 2003. IPC is a US-based trade association with approximately 2,600 member companies which represent all facets of the electronic interconnection industry, including design, printed wiring board manufacturing and electronics assembly.
• ASML Masktools (Santa Clara, CA.), a wholly owned subsidiary of ASML, and Mentor Graphics Corp. (Wilsonville, OR.) have signed a collaborative agreement. The agreement combines expertise in imaging equipment, software, and advanced processes to help semiconductor customers increase chip yield and pursue deep-submicron designs. The agreement is a first between an advanced imaging company and an EDA company. Mentor Graphics and ASML Masktools will offer full-chip manufacturability verification using multiple optical process extensions. These techniques are becoming useful in semiconductor production to realize acceptable chip yields as IC geometries shrink below 0.13 micron.
• The Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA) recognized several fabless companies for their outstanding achievements at its fifth anniversary dinner. The event attracted over 1,000 of the industry's top executives. The FSA recognized the industry's most respected public fabless company, the industry's most respected private fabless company, companies that doubled revenues or net income year-over-year, the best financially managed fabless company and public fabless companies chosen by leading semiconductor analysts. The industry's most respected public and private fabless company were determined by votes received from the fabless community, industry and financial analysts, and suppliers. Broadcom Corp. was selected as the industry's most respected public fabless company for the second consecutive year. Marvell Semiconductor won the industry's most respected private fabless company award. The FSA established a new award this year, the exemplary leadership award which was designed to recognize an individual's outstanding contributions to the fabless semiconductor sector. The recipient's vision and global leadership must have transformed the entire semiconductor industry and its future. The first ever Exemplary Leadership award was presented to Dr. Morris Chang, chairman and founder, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. Dr. Chang helped create the pure-play silicon manufacturing business model that has gained worldwide acceptance and proven to be the backbone of fabless semiconductor companies' success. As a tribute to Dr. Chang and his success, the FSA will rename the award and present it to future recipients as the "Dr. Morris Chang award for exemplary leadership." The FSA recognized fabless companies that doubled revenue or net income, year-over-year, for the 12-month period ending September, 1999. Outstanding financial perfo rmance awards for the public sector were presented to Aureal Inc., Broadcom Corp., Genesis Microchip, MMC Networks, Nvidia Corp., PMC-Sierra, Qlogic Corp., and Transwitch Corp. The evening's final awards, Favorite Fabless Picks, were presented to five public fabless companies by leading semiconductor analysts. The analysts used their own criteria to determine each individual winner. Rick Whittington, senior semiconductor analyst, Banc of America Securities, chose Broadcom; Arun Veerappan, senior semiconductor device analyst, Robertson Stephens selected Globespan; Joe Osha, senior semiconductor analyst, Merrill Lynch, selected PMC-Sierra; Jonathan Joseph, senior semiconductor analyst, Salomon Smith Barney, chose Power Integrations; and Bruce Walicek, senior semiconductor analyst, Deutsche Banc Alex Brown, chose Xilinx.
• Avanti Corp. (Fremont, CA.) and Analogy, Inc. (Beaverton, OR.) announced a definitive agreement under which Avanti will acquire Analogy for a total cash purchase price of $24 million, or approximately $2.48 per share (based on the number of common shares Analogy expects to have outstanding on the date the transaction is closed and subject to possible adjustment for certain analogy expenses). The acquisition is approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is subject to certain conditions, including compliance with applicable regulatory requirements and approval by Analogy's shareholders.
• Pivotal Technologies (Pasadena, CA.) and UMC Group (Sunnyvale, CA.) announced a multi-year agreement to supply and support a range of Pivotal's Fulcrum analog and mixed-signal on-chip components used for deep-submicron (DSM) system-on-a-chip (SOC) designs. With this agreement, SOC developers will have access to new components that target DSM process requirements in communications and multimedia markets. The components will be made available for UMC Group's 0.25 and 0.18 micron processes, as well as 0.15 micron processes in the future. Several elements for the expanding communications and multimedia markets will be tested on the various processes. Pivotal Technologies recently received a $10-million Series B round of financing led by Goldman Sachs. This most recent investment will be used to expand engineering resources.
• Verisity Ltd. (Mountain View, CA.) announced the completion of the acquisition of Surefire Verification (Campbell, CA.) The new organization provides functional verification applications that automate the process from the module to the chip and system levels. The acquisition was unanimously approved by the shareholders of both companies and was accounted for as a pooling of interests. Surefire's products, Suresolve and Surecov, will add to Verisity's testbench automation products, Specman Elite, and extend Verisity's product line to the module level.

Movers and Shakers

• Mitel Semiconductor (Ottawa, Canada) appoints Pierre Nadeau to the position of vice president of its communications business. Nadeau will build relationships with tier-one customers and oversee the strategic development of Mitel Semiconductor's communications business encompassing WAN internetworking, telephony, wireless, home gateway, optical and communications system level integration (SLI) solutions. He will be based in Swindon, England. Before joining Mitel, Nadeau served as the general manager of LSI Logic Europe, and vice president and officer of LSI Logic Corp. At LSI, he re-engineered the marketing, sales and engineering organizations to focus on SLI vertical applications in communications and media, growing the business in Europe by over 60 percent in a three-year period.
• Phoenix Technologies Ltd. (San Jose, CA.) reported the creation of Insilicon Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary, which is expected to include substantially all the assets of Phoenix's Semiconductor IP Division. Wayne Cantwell, formerly senior vice president and general manager of Phoenix's Semiconductor IP Division, becomes president and CEO of Insilicon. Mr. Cantwell brings over 15 years software, semiconductor, and PC industry experience in sales, international operations, and general management at Phoenix, NEC and Intel. Supporting Mr. Cantwell in the management of Insilicon are the following: Ajit Deora will serve as senior director of engineering. Mr. Deora brings 18 years of semiconductor development management experience, including work at two start-up companies. Mr. Deora was a co-founder of Sand Microelectronics, and previously worked at S3, Silicon Platforms, Western Digital and Intel. Barry Hoberman was named vice president of business development and CTO. Mr. Hoberman has 19 years semiconductor experience in product management, development and general management at Phoenix, Advanced Micro Devices and Monolithic Memories. Anand Naidu will serve as vice president of Internet products. Mr. Naidu brings 24 years of experience in semiconductors and systems. Mr. Naidu was a co-founder and CEO of Sand Microelectronics, which was acquired by Phoenix in September 1998. Prior to founding Sand, he held marketing and development management positions at S3 and Western Digital. Robert Nalesnik has been named vice president of marketing. Mr. Nalesnik has over 19 years of experience in semiconductor and EDA marketing. Prior to joining Sand Microelectronics, he held management positions at VLSI Technology, Compass Design Automation, Actel and Fairchild. David Power, formerly associate general counsel for Phoenix, overseeing the legal functions of the Semiconductor IP Division, has been named general counsel. Prior to Phoenix, Mr. Power held corporate counsel positions with Chevron Corp., Varian Associates, Inc., Cymer Inc., and Cidco Inc. Mr. Power's legal specialization is in the areas of intellectual property and technology licensing. Matthew Raggett has been named senior director of worldwide sales. Mr. Raggett has 23 years sales and marketing experience in semiconductors and EDA at companies including Virtual Chips, Cadence, Gateway Design Automation, National Semiconductor, Fairchild, and STC.
• Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI; Mountain View, CA.) appointed Jackie N. Tubis to its board of directors. Tubis is president of Schlumberger Automated Test Equipment products worldwide. Tubis was previously vice president and general manager of Schlumberger's diagnostics systems group and has held various engineering, marketing, and business management positions within the company. Prior to joining Schlumberger in 1985, she held software engineering and management positions at National Semiconductor.
• Cadence Design Systems, Inc. reported that Shane Robison, president of the Design Productivity Group at Cadence, has left the company to accept the position of president, Internet Technology and Development, for AT&T Labs.

Money Bits

• Wind River Systems, Inc. (Alameda, CA.) reported operating results for the third quarter. Total revenues for the third quarter were $44.6 million, a 30 percent increase from revenues of $34.2 million reported in the same period of fiscal 1999. Excluding charges incurred in connection with hiring a new chief executive officer, implementation of an enterprise resource planning system and amortization of goodwill, operating income in the third quarter was $10.4 million compared to $10.6 million for the corresponding period in fiscal year 1999. Also excluding these charges, net income was $7.4 million, compared to net income of $7.3 million for the third quarter of fiscal year 1999 and diluted earnings per share were $0.17 compared to diluted earnings per share of $0.17 for the same period in fiscal 1999. Revenues for the first nine months of fiscal 2000 were $117.7 million, a 27 percent increase from revenues of $92.7 million in the same period of fiscal 1999. Excluding the charges mentioned above, operating income for the first nine months was $25.3 million, compared to $25.5 million for the corresponding period in fiscal year 1999. Also excluding these charges, net income was $18.4 million or $0.42 per diluted share, compared to net income of $17.6 million or $0.40 per diluted share for the first nine months of fiscal 1999. Operating income for the third quarter was $7.9 million, compared to $10.4 million for the corresponding period in fiscal year 1999. Net income for the third quarter was $5.9 million or $0.13 per diluted share, compared to net income of $7.1 million or $0.16 per diluted share for the corresponding period of fiscal year 1999. For the first nine months, operating income was $20.1 million, compared to $24.9 million for the corresponding period in fiscal year 1999. Net income was $14.4 million or $0.33 per diluted share, compared to net income of $17.3 million or $0.40 per diluted share for the corresponding period in fiscal 1999. During the third quarter, Wind River incurred charges of $1.3 million in connection with hiring a new chief executive officer, $975,000 related to non-capitalizable costs associated with the implementation of an enterprise resource planning system and $207,000 of amortization of goodwill.
• Agilent Technologies, Inc. (Palo Alto, CA.) disclosed the results for the 1999 fiscal year's fourth quarter, as well as for the full fiscal year. The company, a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard Company, completed a $2.2 billion initial public offering of stock-the largest in Silicon Valley history. The company reported in its Form S-1 filing that net revenue for the fourth quarter was $2.4 billion, an increase of 23 percent over the same period last year. For the full year, Agilent's net revenue totaled $8.3 billion, up 5 percent over fiscal year 1998. For the fourth quarter, Agilent's earnings from operations were $205 million, or 8.4 percent of the quarter's net revenue. For the full year, earnings from operations were $741 million, or 8.9 percent of revenue. Net earnings for the fourth quarter were $146 million, compared with a net loss of $51 million in the same period last year. (The net loss for the fourth quarter of last year included pre-tax restructuring charges of $145 million.) This quarter's net earnings were 6 percent of revenue. Net earnings for fiscal 1999 were $512 million, an increase of 99 percent over the $257 million reported in fiscal 1998.
• Ansoft Corp. (Pittsburgh, PA.) reported financial results for its second quarter of fiscal year 2000. Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2000 increased 34 percent to $7.4 million compared to $5.5 million reported in the previous fiscal year's second quarter. Pro forma net loss for the second quarter of fiscal 2000 was $26,000, or $(0.00) per diluted share, which excludes the effects of the amortization of intangibles of $596,000. This compares with a pro forma net loss of $686,000, or $(0.06) per diluted share, reported for the same quarter in the prior fiscal year which excludes the effects of the amortization of intangibles of $434,000.
• Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ.) reported that revenues for its fourth fiscal quarter increased 23 percent to a record $10.575 billion. Revenues in the fiscal 1998 period were $8.574 billion. Net income increased 50 percent over the year-ago quarter to $972 million or 31 cents a share, excluding one-time events. Net income for the year-ago quarter was $647 million or 21 cents a share, excluding one-time events. For the fiscal year, revenues increased 20 percent to $38.303 billion. This compares with revenues of $31.806 billion in fiscal 1998. Net income rose 46 percent to $3.833 billion or $1.22 a share for the fiscal year, excluding one-time events. This compares with net income of $2.619 billion or 86 cents a share for fiscal 1998, excluding one-time events. In fiscal 1999, Lucent announced more than $11 billion in contract wins, including more than $2 billion in September alone. The company's microelectronics business also continued its strong growth, with revenues of nearly $1 billion in the quarter. Lucent's revenues outside the U.S. grew 38 percent in the quarter and 47 percent for the fiscal year. In fiscal 1999, Lucent's revenues outside the U.S. accounted for 32 percent of sales, up from 23 percent when Lucent became an independent company.
• Mentor Graphics (Wilsonville, OR.) reported third quarter revenues of $114.1 million and earnings-per-share of $.09. Improved operational efficiencies helped drive the results. The Quickuse development system, announced in June, brought a resurgence to the consulting and training business, most notably in methodology consulting. The emulation business also remained strong, growing about 50 percent year-over-year.
• Synopsys, Inc. (Mountain View, CA.), reported its fourth quarter and annual results for the period. Revenue for the fourth quarter was $228.3 million, compared with pro forma revenue for the same period last year of $179.8 million, an increase of 27 percent. Net income was $53.0 million, or $0.72 per share, compared with pro forma net income of $37.2 million, or $0.53 per share, for the fourth quarter of fiscal 1998. This represents pro forma net income and earnings per share growth of 42 percent and 36 percent, respectively. Earnings before goodwill (EBG), which represents earnings per share on a fully diluted basis excluding amortization of intangible assets and unusual charges, if any, amounted to $0.75 per share, compared to $0.53 per share, for the fourth quarter of fiscal 1998, an increase of 42 percent. The fourth quarter fiscal 1998 pro forma amounts exclude the PCB/Systems business of Viewlogic Systems (divested on October 2, 1998) as well as unusual charges. Revenue for the fourth quarter was $228.3 million, compared with $194.0 million for the same period last year without adjusting for the Viewlogic divestiture, an increase of 18 percent. Net income for the fourth quarter was $53.0 million or $0.72 per share, compared with net income of $37.1 million, or $0.53 per share for the fourth quarter of fiscal 1998. Revenue for the fiscal year 1999 was $806.1 million, compared with pro forma revenue for the same period last year of $661.6 million, an increase of 22 percent.