Business briefs

16 Jan 2004

Including news from Cree, Kyocera, Toshiba, FLIR Systems and more.

•  Cree, US, has reported a second quarter revenue of $72.68 million, a 28% increase over the $56.72 million for the comparable quarter last year. The firm’s net income for the quarter increased 45% year-on-year to $13 million. “Our record revenue and higher profitability were driven by strong LED sales as we benefited from increased demand for LEDs in mobile phone applications,” said Cree’s president Chuck Swoboda.

•  Planar Systems, the US developer of flat-panel displays, has recorded sales of $62.9 million for the quarter ended 26 December 2003. This figure is up 11% compared with the year-ago quarter and down 13% sequentially. Planar’s president Balaji Krishnamurthy said that the sequential decline was due the medical segment missing its sales target.

•  FLIR Systems of the US has won a $16.9 million contract from the US Army for 29 of its SAFIRE airborne thermal imaging systems. The units will be produced at the firm’s Portland facility and delivery will begin during the current fiscal quarter.

•  Japanese consumer electronics giants Toshiba and Samsung Electronics are teaming up to form a specialist optical disk drive (ODD) company. The joint venture, called Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corporation, will start operation on 1 April and initially employ 700 people. The company will be headquartered in Japan and operate a subsidiary out of Korea.

•  Kyocera of Japan has announced its plans to enter the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) market. The company’s subsidiary Kyocera Display Institute will develop and sell 2 to 8-inch OLEDs for cellphones and digital cameras. It plans to release commercial products in 2005.

•  Advanced Laser Diode Systems (ALS) of Germany has appointed Market Tech as its exclusive distributor in the US. ALS develops picosecond laser diode systems and ultrafast photodetectors for OEM, life science and telecom applications.