UPDATE 2-IPTE to sell automation division and rename

Sale for initial 2 mln euros
* To be left with just contract manufacturing business
* To rename itself Connect Group
(Adds details from company statement)
BRUSSELS, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Belgium electronics firm IPTE (IPTE.BR) will sell its loss-making automation division for an initial 2 million euros to two key shareholders in a total transformation of the company, which will be renamed Connect Group.
The sale, subject to shareholder approval in the first quarter of 2010, will be for an initial 2 million euros and further payments dependant on performance until December 2012, the company said in a statement issued on Monday.
IPTE said it would sell the business, which sets up and tests systems for printed circuit boards, to company founder Huub Baren, which currently holds 30.23 percent of IPTE, according to the company's website, and Vladimir Dobosch, which holds 3.71 percent.
The transfer will lead to a one-off loss in the fourth quarter of this year of between 17 million and 18 million euros, IPTE said.
IPTE said last month it was looking at measures to improve its automation division, which had been thrown off course in its expansion plans by the global economic downturn.
IPTE as a whole made a net loss of 6.6 million euros ($9.5 million) in the first nine months of 2009.
The remainder of the company, which is in contract manufacturing, with such customers as Philips Electronics (PHG.AS) and Alstom (ALSO.PA), had 2008 turnover of 166 million euros and, apart from 2001, has been constantly profitable.
IPTE said it planned to change its name to Connect Group, which will remain listed on Euronext.
IPTE said banks had agreed to continue their support after the automation sale. The company plans to reinforce its balance sheet in early 2010 by issuing a subordinated convertible debenture of between 2 million and 5 million euros.
IPTE said it would have the right to share a capital gain if the automation division were sold to a third party within the next two years.
As a guarantee of payments, the acquirers had granted IPTE a call option on their shareholdings at 2.86 euros if the shares were trading at that level or above, or at the highest bid price for the share if the shares were trading below 2.86 euros.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE5BK0EQ20091221

CPMC and China high precision IPOs raise a combined USD 267 million

It is reported that CPMC encounters high levels of demand as two smaller cap companies succeed in raising capital.

Two Chinese small cap companies priced their Hong Kong initial public offerings raising a combined HKD 2.07 billion. Metal packaging company CPMC Holdings raised HKD 1.07 billion and China High Precision Automation Group tapped the market for HKD 1 billion.

CPMC sold 200 million primary shares at HKD 5.39 apiece the top of an indicative range that started at HKD 3.85. Retail investors flocked to the deal with the Hong Kong public offer approximately 200 times covered. This triggered the largest possible clawback and left 50% of the total offering in the hands of individual investors, up from the initial 10%. There were also three cornerstone investors who together took 16.5% of the deal. They were China Resources Company, CCB International Asset Management and JDB, which is also the company main customer.

So there wasn't much left for institutions the remaining 33.5% of the deal, approximately USD 46 million worth of shares, was split between 130 accounts. The institutional tranche was 60 times covered leading to a situation where a number of investors had their orders scaled back. All geographical regions were well represented.

One source said the company was popular for a couple of reasons.

1. Investors saw its key product metal containers as a proxy for Chinese consumption; if people buy more packaged products, CPMC will need to produce more containers.
2. International investors were comfortable with the company main shareholder, Cofco Group one of China largest food businesses which has a reputation for strong corporate governance.

The final price values the company at 18.6 times 2010 projected earnings. There are no direct comparables listed in Hong Kong, although some research reports compared CPMC to Hong Kong listed Chinese companies in the food and beverage sector, such as Tingyi Holdings and Want Want China which are trading at price-to-earnings multiples of around 15 times and 18 times respectively. There is also a US company in the same industry, Ball Corporation, which trades at around 12 times 2010 projected earnings.

The other company to price CHP raised HKD 1 billion. It is in the business of producing high precision industrial automation instruments, with a focus on the middle and high end of the market. Its main products are detectors, indicators and controllers. It also has a horological division, making the parts used in quartz watches.

CHP sold 250 million shares at HKD 4 each, in the bottom half of its indicative range of HKD 3.50 to HKD 4.80 a share. The final price left the book multiply times covered with an international investor base consisting mostly of long-only funds.

One of CHP main selling points was that it is not particularly exposed to one particular sector it sells instruments used in optics, healthcare, vehicles, industrial automation and electronics. And if, as some analysts believe, China manufacturing sector is becoming more sophisticated, CHP should perform well, because it will supply manufacturers in need of precision parts.

Both of these IPOs are relatively small companies in niche industries that are taking advantage of the rebounding markets to raise capital. And when it comes to aftermarket performance, such companies have performed somewhat better than their larger competitors.
http://steelguru.com/news/index/2009/11/14/MTIwMzE3/CPMC_and_China_high_precision_IPOs_raise_a_combined_USD_267_million.html

Intelligent Living Appointed Distributor of Home Automation Inc. Energy Conservation and Automation Products in Turkey

Intelligent Living Corp. ("ILVC"), (OTCBB: ILVC), a leading automation and technology solutions provider, utilizing green building practices, announced today that Home Automation Inc. (HAI) has appointed ILVC as their distributor for the Turkish market.
ILVC, through their Turkish partners, Kilia Teknoloji (www.akilliyasam.biz) is now distributing HAI products and providing technology know-how for energy conservation and automation projects in Turkey, including custom designed user interfaces.
"HAI's leading technology plus our capability to provide customized Turkish language display capability definitely give us a market leading solution," noted Murat Erbatur, P.Eng. COO of Intelligent Living. "HAI's Automation Studio software combined with the customizable user interface capability of their new 5.7 and 10 inch touchscreens, enables us to offer user interfaces in the Turkish and middle eastern languages. These features make us unique and greatly improve the appeal of our all-in-one automation control and entertainment systems in this very active market."
ILVC is also working with Smart Home Technologies Ltd. located in Israel which is developing Universal Power Buss light switches under license from PCS that are compatible with HAI controllers for use in 240v markets.
About ILVC (www.intelligent-living.us): Intelligent Living Corp, utilizing green building practices, specializes in designing, supplying, installing, upgrading and servicing home and commercial automation systems including: energy use monitoring and control, security, occupancy monitoring and access control, lighting and HVAC control, and distributed audio/video systems. The Company utilizes wire and wireless technology, and offers traditional component and Windows Media PC based architecture. ILVC, a member of the Canadian Green Building Council, has supplied custom IT solutions since 1994 and automation solutions since 2003. The Company has offices and demonstration suites in Phoenix and Vancouver.
About HAI (www.homeauto.com): HAI (Home Automation, Inc.) is a privately held manufacturer of integrated automation and security products for residential and commercial use based in New Orleans, LA. Incorporated in 1985, HAI has developed a full line of award-winning automation products, including home control systems, programmable communicating thermostats, smart light switches, Whole Home Audio systems, video surveillance equipment, touchscreen interfaces, and software that allow access and control of an automation system over the Internet. All products are sold through HAI's worldwide network of Distribution Partners and installed by trained dealers in over 80 countries.
About Kilia (www.kiliateknoloji.com.tr): Founded in 1988, Kilia Teknoloji is a leading supplier of state-of-the-art integrated security management systems, access control system and engineered EMI/EMC filter systems for secured telemetry to both Governments and industry. Kilia was responsible for the design, installation and commissioning of a high security remote monitoring and telemetry system at four of Turkey's international port facilities and recently completed installing access monitoring and home automation utilizing Moeller's Xcomfort system at the Gokturk Palm multi-unit residence development in Istanbul. Kilia is a member of ASIA International (www.asisonline.org) and is the exclusive agent for LCR Electronics in Turkey.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains statements, which may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Those statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of Intelligent Living, Inc., and members of their management as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Important factors currently known to management that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include fluctuation of operating results, the ability to compete successfully and the ability to complete before-mentioned transactions. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results.
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0556008.htm

47th Design Automation Conference Announces Calls for Submissions to Technical Program

Deadlines Begin on October 26, 2009
LOUISVILLE, Colo.--(Business Wire)--
The 47th Design Automation Conference (DAC), the premier conference devoted to
electronic design and design automation (EDA), has opened the first Call for
Contributions to the technical program. The 47th DAC will be held at the Anaheim
Convention Center, in Anaheim, California from June 13-18, 2010. IC designers,
application engineers, design flow developers, vendor-customer teams and
students are invited to submit proposals for eight different areas of the
technical program enumerated below. DAC is also accepting proposals for
workshops and co-located events. 

Special Session Suggestions:
DUE BEFORE 5:00pm MT, October 26, 2009
DAC invites suggestions for special sessions, which consist of technical
contributions devoted to a topic of strong contemporary or future interest. The
topic of a special session must represent an emerging area that does not yet
receive sufficient focus from research papers. Suggestions must include
descriptions of the proposed papers and speakers as well as the importance of
the special session to the DAC audience.
See Special Session submission guidelines at
http://www.dac.com/47th/PDFs/47th_DAC_SpecialSession_Guidelines.pdf

Panel and Tutorial Suggestions:
DUE BEFORE 5:00pm MT, October 26, 2009
Suggestions for panels and tutorials should not exceed two pages, should
describe the topic and intended audience, and should include a list of suggested
participants. Tutorial suggestions must include a bulleted outline of covered
topics.
See the Full-day Tutorial Submission guidelines at
http://www.dac.com/47th/PDFs/47th_DAC_FullDay_Tutorial_Submission_Guidelines.pdf

User Track Presentations:
Extended Abstracts DUE BEFORE 5:00pm MT, January 18, 2010
User Track Presentations address the real-life issues facing IC designers,
application engineers, and design flow developers, providing valuable insights
and experiences with in-house or commercial EDA tool flows. Presentations may
describe the application of EDA tools to the design of a novel electronic system
or the integration of EDA tools within a design flow or methodology to produce
such systems.
Initial submissions are in the form of a two-page extended abstract. Final
submissions will be in the form of a PowerPoint presentation and an optional
paper. User Track authors will not be required to sign a copyright release form.
See details and submission categories at http://www.dac.com/47th/UTinfo.html

Research Papers:
DUE BEFORE 5:00pm MT, November 19, 2009
Original research papers are solicited from industry and the research/academic
community. While submissions in all areas of design automation are welcome, DAC
specifically solicits research papers in the areas of multicore/many core
architectures, system prototyping technology and embedded software design and
debug.
Submissions must not identify the author(s) by their name(s) or affiliation(s)
anywhere on the manuscript or abstract, with all references to the author(s)`s
own previous work or affiliations in the bibliographic citations being in the
third person. All research papers will be reviewed as finished papers. Authors
of accepted papers must sign a copyright release form for their paper. See
submission topic categories at http://www.dac.com/47th/PDFs/47DAC_CFP.pdf
See format and submission guidelines at
http://www.dac.com/47th/PDFs/47th_DAC_Research_Paper_Guidelines.pdf

Wild and Crazy Ideas (WACI) Papers
DUE BEFORE 5:00pm MT, November 19, 2009
WACI Papers cover interesting activities on a wide variety of topics that do not
fit in the conventional mold. The WACI track features novel (and even
preliminary or unproven) technical ideas. The aim of WACI is to promote
revolutionary and "way-out" ideas that inspire discussion among conference
attendees, create a buzz, and get people talking. Submissions should not exceed
two pages, but must otherwise follow the rules and deadlines for the research
papers. Unlike a DAC research paper that explores a specific technology problem
and proposes a complete solution to it, with extensive experimental results, a
WACI paper could present less developed but highly innovative ideas related to
areas relevant to DAC. All WACI accepted papers will be required to post a
two-minute video describing the work as part of the acceptance process.
See submission details at
http://www.dac.com/47th/PDFs/47th_DAC_WACI_Submission_Guidelines.pdf

Student Design Contest Submissions:
DUE BEFORE 5:00pm MT, November 25, 2009
Jointly sponsored by ISSCC and DAC, the contest promotes excellence in the
design of electronic systems within an academic environment and provides a forum
in which undergraduate/graduate students` ingenuity can be shared with an
audience of academic/industrial technical experts. The winners will present
their designs through posters at ISSCC 2010 and DAC 2010. Designs may be
targeted towards analog, digital, MEMS, optics, biological, or programmable
circuits and embedded systems/platforms in any of the three categories:
operational, system level, or conceptual.
See submission details at
http://www.dac.com/47th/PDFs/47th_SDC_Submission_Guidelines.pdf

Workshops:
DUE BEFORE 5:00pm MT, January 29, 2010
Workshops focus on topics related to design, design methodologies, and design
automation.
See submission topic categories at http://www.dac.com/47th/PDFs/47DAC_CFP.pdf

For additional information on all submissions, please see
http://www.dac.com/47th/PDFs/47DAC_CFP.pdf

About DAC

The Design Automation Conference (DAC) is recognized as the premier event for
the design of electronic circuits and systems, and for Electronic Design
Automation (EDA) and silicon solutions. A diverse worldwide community
representing more than 1,000 organizations attends each year, represented by
system designers and architects, logic and circuit designers, validation
engineers, CAD managers, senior managers and executives to researchers and
academicians from leading universities. Close to 60 technical sessions selected
by a committee of electronic design experts offer information on recent
developments and trends, management practices and new products, methodologies
and technologies. A highlight of DAC is its Exhibition and Suite area with
approximately 200 of the leading and emerging EDA, silicon, IP and design
services providers. The conference is sponsored by the Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM), the Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDA Consortium),
and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and is
supported by ACM's Special Interest Group on Design Automation (SIGDA) and
IEEE's Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA). More details are
available at: www.dac.com. 

Design Automation Conference acknowledges trademarks or registered trademarks of

other organizations for their respective products and services.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS183725+21-Oct-2009+BW20091021

Start-Up Electronics Marketplace Aims to Thwart Counterfeits

An online marketplace for high-tech electronics will launch tomorrow with a strategy to filter out counterfeit parts and offer anonymous, secure transactions to buyers and sellers in the secondary market.

Verical, a start-up backed by venture capital firm Valhalla, qualifies the sellers in its network and audits the inventory in its Web-based catalog, assigning a rating to each part based on its chain of custody, or pedigree. This enables sellers to turn their excess inventories into cash, and buyers to know just what they’re getting, co-founder John Brown, vice president of marketing & strategy, told Managing Automation in a recent interview.

The online marketplace can help manufacturers deal with ever-changing forecasts and resulting parts shortages, Chris Cookson, vice president of supply chain and operations at the company, told MA in an interview. The primary supplier channel may not be able to react quickly enough, especially as the market starts to recover from the downturn. Generally, “about 40% of purchasing’s time is spent scouring 1% of parts,” he said. “We provide a safe source of parts, available on demand, and we execute transactions quickly through our automated system.”

The catalog is built on a so-called rich Internet application, Brown said. A buyer can find out “in a few seconds” what parts are available, along with date codes, lot codes, prices, and features. Verical can automatically upload data from Excel spreadsheets to the online catalog, company executives said.

Brown and co-founder Josef Ruef, CEO, came up with the idea for Verical in response to the threat to the supply chain by counterfeit parts that, more and more, were passing visual inspections and even initial testing.

“The secondary market is being exploited by fraudsters and profiteers,” Ruef said in a statement.

The founders reasoned that using chain of custody information and “allowing only first owners to sell would block out an entry point for counterfeiters and would give buyers confidence,” Brown said. “This is an extension of the primary market.”

Of the $600 billion annual market for electronic components, the time-critical segment is roughly $22 billion, of which about $12 billion is serviced by unauthorized distributors and 13% of which is counterfeit, according to Verical’s statement, citing figures from electronics industry trade association IPC.

Under Verical’s rating system, a product with four stars comes directly from or is traceable to the component manufacturer. A three-star rating indicates that a component comes directly from or is traceable to an authorized distributor. Two stars mean that the seller is a member of the Verical community and has a purchase order listing an authorized distributor or the original manufacturer. A product with one star comes from an OEM or electronics manufacturing service (EMS) member of the community.

Verical takes a commission on all sales. The company processes orders and passes them through to the sellers. Components are delivered by Verical’s third-party logistics partners to preserve both buyers’ and sellers’ anonymity.

For sellers, Cookson said in a statement, “writing off excess inventory equals lost revenue. Typically, sellers of excess inventory get 4% to 8% return. Today, in the Verical Marketplace, they’re getting eight to 10 times that, with the average seller recovering 60% of the historical cost.”

Before co-founding Verical, Brown worked at the Corporate Executive Board presenting management best practices to senior executive teams of Global 2000 companies. He also worked at the Department of Homeland Security on a data-sharing platform. Ruef was a member of the start-up executive team at Velocity Electronics, where he oversaw brand development, sales, and quality control. He also served as a consultant to Trading Hubs (later known as eHitex), the electronics industry’s first-generation HP-led B2B marketplace.
http://www.managingautomation.com/maonline/news/read/StartUp_Electronics_Marketplace_Aims_to_Thwart_Counterfeits_33087

Rockleigh electronics firm tapped to create high-end mobile office

Customized Mercedes-Benz van equipped with office technology.

Creston Electronics, in Rockleigh, said Tuesday it partnered with Becker Automotive Design, in Oxnard, Calif., to develop a high-end mobile office for luxury transport vehicles. Creston is a maker of control and automation systems, including computer and Internet protocol systems. Becker customizes chauffeur-driven luxury vehicles.

The companies are upgrading Cadillac Escalade ESV sport utility vehicles and Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans with high-speed wireless communications, satellite television reception, flat-panel screens, and other audio and video amenities.

When equipped, the vehicles offer mobile Web browsing, video conferencing and other options for business connectivity.

Other creature comforts include Blu-ray video players, iPods and a home theater style audio-video system.

http://www.njbiz.com/article.asp?aID=79076

Global site unites industrial automation

Industrial automation web portal is designed to ensure that customers receive consistent information wherever their operations are based.

Omron has set up a new global portal website for its industrial automation business which has been designed to ensure that its customers receive consistent information wherever their operations are based, and to further enhance Omron's visibility on the Internet.

The portal reflects the global nature of Omron's industrial automation business, which has sales and service bases in locations throughout the world, with roughly half of its sales generated outside of its home base in Japan.

This global growth has been supported by highly localised service delivery, in which Omron's country-specific, local-language websites have played a crucial role.

As Omron supports some of the world's largest manufacturers, the company is committed to provide a standardised and uniform service to its global customers.

Designed as a "one-stop-shop" for the latest information in English, the portal provides details on Omron's full range of industrial automation products and services, and also their stock availability around the world.

A key feature of the portal is an intuitive search system designed to help customers easily navigate around the wealth of information available.

The site also connects potential and existing customers to Omron's regional websites via an easy-to-navigate map on its top page.

All UK enquiries received through the portal site will be immediately redirected to Omron Electronics in the UK and answered by UK staff.

To ensure the portal is useful and relevant to users, Omron's Industrial Automation Global Service Centre based in Japan will analyse local enquiries for valuable customer insights that can be reflected in future product design and customer.
http://www.engineeringtalk.com/news/omr/omr228.html