Semiconductor News

MRVC - MRV Receives Additional Nasdaq Staff Determination Letter

• on November 13, 2008 it received an Additional Staff Determination letter from The Nasdaq Stock Market ("Nasdaq") stating that MRV is not in compliance with Nasdaq's Marketplace Rule 4310(c)(14) because it did not file its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2008
  

Semi Sales - Global Chip Sales to Decline 2.2% in 2009, WSTS Says - Chip sales may decline 2.2 percent to $256.1 billion in 2009, WSTS Inc. said today on its Web site. Revenue will gain 2.5 percent this year, short of the previous forecast in May. Bloomberg

SIGM warns for Nov-end Q. Revs seen $46.5MM, dwn 20% Q/Q; prior outlook was for flattish revs. Sees Jan Q revs flat-to-dwn 10%. They cite IPTV weakness

SPSN sues Samsung; seeking to block import of several devices using Samsung flash, inc. Apple iPod; SPSN sued South Korea's Samsung on Monday. Spansion claims more than "one hundred million mp3 players, cell phones, digital cameras and other consumer electronic devices" are made with Samsung flash memory chips that violate Spansion patents – AP.

Taiwan memory makers have a convertible debt problem according to the WSJ – the WSJ Heard on the Street details Taiwan chip makers' debt loads (this isn't a new story and has been a prominent news item for weeks now). Taiwan's government has offered some relief by pushing back the due date on bank loans, totaling about $12.7 billion for the four biggest companies: Powerchip Semiconductor, Nanya Technology, Inotera Memories, and ProMOS Technologies. DJ

TMTA - to be bought by Novaforma for $255.6MM cash; stockholders are expected to receive between $18.70 and $19.00 for each outstanding share of Transmeta's common stock. Novafora is a privately held fabless semiconductor company in San Jose, California that develops a family of digital video processors. Also - has entered into a non-exclusive patent license agreement with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Under the terms of the agreement, AMD will transfer to Transmeta 700,000 shares of Transmeta's Series B Preferred Stock held by AMD.

• TMTA also reports earnings. Revenue for the third quarter of 2008 was $25.3 million. Net income was $30.6 million, or $2.31 per share, compared with $214,000, or $0.02 per share, in the second quarter of 2008.
  

TSM - said on Tuesday it had implemented a general hiring freeze amid a global economic downturn that saw its latest monthly sales post their biggest decline in nearly two years. Reuters

WFR cuts its outlook for the Dec Q.

• WFR gives an update - cuts its guidance. Sees revs for the Q $500MM w/GMs ~48%. Prior was $540-600MM and >50%
• The weak macroeconomic environment has continued to deteriorate, and has had an increasingly negative effect on the semiconductor and solar markets over the past few weeks. These effects are quickly cascading backward through global supply chains, and we cannot expect to be immune to the impact on our customers in all the markets we serve. This recent sequence of events has increased pricing pressure in the short term solar market and exacerbated the demand weakness in the semiconductor market.