Around the Circuit

INDUSTRY NEWS

Advanced Power Technology Inc. (APT) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire GHz Technology Inc. Under the terms of the agreement, APT will issue approximately 1.48 million shares of common stock and $13.3 M in exchange for the business and assets of GHz Technology, which will include approximately $7.9 M of cash.

Smiths Group has acquired Summitek Instruments Inc. , a US supplier of interference test equipment used by the wireless telecoms industry. Smiths paid $10 M in cash for the privately owned business, and agreed to performance related incentives linked to profit targets in each of the next three years.

ITT Industries Inc. has signed an agreement to acquire the business and assets of BIW Connector Systems LLC . BIW will become part of ITT's Cannon business. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Verizon Wireless has purchased the Air Access C2K CDMA Network Emulator product and the C2K-ATS Automatic Test System product from Spirent Communications . Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

Alpha Industries Inc. and Conexant Systems Inc. have signed a definitive agreement that will combine Conexant's wireless business with Alpha. The agreement will create a leader in RF and complete semiconductor system solutions for mobile communications applications.

TECOM Industries Inc., a TRAK Communications company , has relocated and consolidated three of its production plants to a newer and larger facility. TECOM's new 66,000 square foot two-story facility is in the Conejo Technology Center in the Thousand Oaks, CA area.

GIL Technologies Inc. has opened a sales office in Shenzhen, China. The new office will be a technical and sales resource to users and manufacturers of RF/microwave, high speed digital and other printed circuit boards throughout Asia.

Antenova and Cambridge Consultants Ltd. (CCL) have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly market advanced antenna solutions to the fast-developing wireless industry. Under the terms of the agreement, CCL will gain privileged access to Antenova's directional and steerable antenna to support its design for mobile communications product OEMs.

BTG is forming a strategic alliance with Coventor that will focus on acquiring, developing and commercializing MEMS technology and IP in RF, optics and bio MEMS.

Accton Technology Corp. and Atheros Communications Inc. announced that through joint development efforts, Accton is now shipping 802.11a compliant wireless LAN products based on the Atheros AR5000 chipset. In related news, Atheros has received the Fabless Semiconductor Association's 2001 "Most Respected Private Fabless Company" award. The fabless community chose the award winner.

Zetex and Future Electronics have widened their franchise agreement to include the Americas and Europe. Previously, Future only supported the Zetex range of power and signal management products in North America.

Cypress Semiconductor and SiGe Semiconductor have signed an agreement to collaborate on an advanced SiGe process. Under the agreement, the companies will merge SiGe Semiconductor's RF process and device modeling expertise with Cypress' BiCMOS and manufacturing capabilities to bring performance, integration and power advantages to manufacturers of wireless and broadband communications equipment. The companies expect to deliver a production-ready SiGe process during the first quarter of this year.

Conexant Systems Inc. and Tality Corp. have reached an agreement to develop embedded system solutions for Bluetooth™ applications. The relationship will allow Tality to develop complete solutions based upon Conexant's silicon and embedded software development platform.

AVX Corp. has entered into a strategic alliance agreement with Lucent Technologies designed to utilize AVX's advanced component technologies in order to enhance Lucent's product development and time-to-market conditions.

Agilent Technologies Inc. announced its participation in a blade server alliance program sponsored by Hewlett-Packard Co. , in which technology vendors will work to improve and develop open industry-standard technologies for the growing blade server market. In related news, Agilent has been selected by Cisco Systems Inc. as the recipient of Cisco's annual President's Customer Satisfaction Award. The award is Cisco's highest supplier honor.

XL Microwave Inc. has announced a two-year limited warranty on all test and measurement and antenna alignment products, effective January 2.

FINANCIAL NEWS

REMEC Inc. reports sales of $52.5 M for the third quarter ended October 26, 2001, compared to $78.8 M for the same period in 2000. Net loss was $6.2 M (14¢/diluted share) compared to a net income of $5.0 M (11¢/diluted share) for the same period in 2000.

American Technical Ceramics Corp. reports sales of $13.9 M for the first quarter ended September 30, 2001, compared to $20.9 M for the same period in FY2001. Net income was $298 K (4¢/common share) compared to a net income of $2.56 M (33¢/common share) for the comparable quarter in 2000.

Ansoft Corp. reports sales of $12.5 M for the second quarter ended October 31, 2001, compared to $9.7 M for the same period in 2000. Pro forma net income was $1.3 M (10¢/diluted share) compared to a pro forma net income of $773 K (6¢/diluted share) for the second quarter of 2000.

SEMX Corp. reports sales of $12.1 M for the third quarter ended September 30, 2001, compared to $19.1 M for the same period last year. Net loss was $1.7 M (27¢/diluted share) compared to a net income of $112 K (2¢/diluted share) for the third quarter of 2000.

Vari-L Co. Inc. reports sales of $5.7 M for the first quarter ended September 30, 2001, compared to $11.5 M for the same period in 2000. Net loss was $1.1 M (16¢/share) compared to a net loss of $201 K (3¢/share) for first quarter of FY2001.

Merrimac Industries Inc. reports sales of $5.31 M for the third quarter ended September 29, 2001, compared to $6.44 M for the same period in 2000. Net loss was $209 K (8¢/diluted share) compared to a net income of $219 K (9¢/diluted share) for the third quarter of 2000.

The common stock for Alamosa Holdings Inc. has begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "APS."

Unity Wireless Corp. has received final approval to list its shares for trading on the Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX) and commenced trading under the ticker symbol "UWC."

CONTRACTS

EMS Technologies Inc. has been awarded a three-year contract from TRW Inc. to deliver the beam forming network for the first two satellites of the AEHF Project, the US Department of Defense next-generation secure communications satellite constellation. The contract is valued at $22 M.

IFR Systems Inc. has been selected to provide production test equipment for the UK's $2.4 B BOWMAN tactical communications program. The BOWMAN program will provide secure flexible voice and data communications and serve as the principle enabling technology for future digitization of the British armed forces.

Merrimac Industries Inc. has received its first production contract to provide an integrated proprietary Multi-Mix® PICO solution for use in a new 3G broadband basestation.

After delivering seven systems of phase-matched cables last year, MegaPhase has received a follow-on contract for nine more systems from L3 Communications/ Randtron Antenna Systems. The contract is valued in the low six-figures and will supply high performance airborne coaxial cables used inside radars.

PERSONNEL

Lambda has appointed Don Naab as president. Most recently, Naab served as the chief operations officer at Centurion Wireless Technologies.

Celerity Systems Inc. has named Bruce Moore president and general manager. Moore brings more than 25 years of experience in program management and international marketing to the position. He was for- merly a senior manager with KPMG Consulting Financial Services, responsible for marketing and business development. In related news, the company appointed Tim Carey VP of marketing. Prior to joining the company, Carey served as director of marketing for Anritsu Co. USA.

Microwave Circuit Technology Inc. has named Brit Andresen CEO, replacing company founder Ulf Andresen who will continue as chairman of the board. Brit Andresen has 19 years experience in the printed circuit industry.

Five of the senior executives at Sirenza Microdevices have assumed new responsibilities to better align the company's management structure with its expanded strategic direction. The executives and their new positions include: Norm Hilgendorf , VP, sales and marketing; Bob Pinato , VP, terminal products; Rodney Hsing , VP, strategic accounts; and John Pelose , director, wireline products.

Superconductor Technologies Inc. has named Rich Conlon senior VP of sales and marketing. Most recently, Conlon served as VP of North American sales for Repeater Technologies.

The board of directors at CTS Corp. has made a series of personnel appointments. H. Tyler Buchanan was elected senior VP, CTS Corp. Prior to his promotion, Buchanan held the position of VP, CTS Corp. James L. Cummins was elected senior VP, administration, CTS Corp. In addition to Cummins current human resource responsibilities, he will assume responsibility for corporate facilities management and environmental and health safety management. Prior to this promotion, he held the position of VP, human resources. Richard G. Cutter III has been elected secretary of CTS Corp. Cutter retains his current position of VP and general counsel, responsible for all the corporation's legal matters.

First Source Inc. has appointed Denise Hill , formerly of Richardson Electronics, as north central regional sales manager. Hill will be based in Indianapolis, IN.

REP APPOINTMENTS

Amcom Communications Inc. has appointed Trionic Associates Inc. , Great Neck, NY, to be the exclusive representatives for the metro New York territory, including northern New Jersey.

Anritsu Co. has appointed AF CommSupply , Lenexa, KS, an authorized distributor of its SiteMaster™ hand-held cable and antenna analyzers. Under terms of the agreement, AF CommSupply will sell, market and service the SiteMaster family.

MCE/Inmet has restructured its distribution network for the US and Canada. With the elimination of traditional sales boundaries, the company has appointed four authorized distributors to serve all of the US and Canada. The distributors are: Argosy Component Sales , Bellevue, WA; Bayshore Communications Inc. , San Jose, CA; M & S Electronics Inc. , Haddonfield, NJ; and Sun Moon Electronics , Plano, TX. In addition, the company has two international distributors: Sematron UK Ltd. serving the UK and Tactron Elektronik GmbH serving Germany, Middle and Eastern Europe.

NEW MARKET ENTRY

BroadWave Technologies Inc. , Franklin, IN, has been established to design, manufacture and market high performance power dividers, couplers, and other passive RF and microwave components for wireless, medical, automotive and military applications. The company is located at 2900 Graham Road, Suite B, Franklin, IN 46131.

WEB SITE

Anaren Microwave Inc. has launched the third generation of its Web site. This site offers components for wireless, space, defense automotive, health and more. Products include Xinger® surface-mounts, RF power-brand resistive products, AdrenaLine™ splitter/combiners and ferrite parts. The site features full-line searches, S-parameters, specs, rep/distributor locator, on-line RFQ, literature and sample forms.