The following news caught my eye last week, items that are worth noting:

Companies and Products

Custom MMIC added three x2 multipliers to their standard product portfolio. One is an active design with an 8 to 15 GHz input range. The other two are passive designs with 7 to 11 GHz and 8 to 15 GHz input ranges.

GigOptix released single and quad-channel limiting DML drivers for 25 and 100 Gbps Ethernet applications.

Keysight reported Q4 non-GAAP revenue of $756 million, down 1 percent from the year-ago quarter. Acquiring Anite helped offset a decline in wireless manufacturing demand.

MACOM is acquiring FiBest, a Japanese supplier of transmit/receive optical subassemblies. MACOM will pay approximately $60 million for the privately held company.

Also, MACOM announced fiscal 2015 revenue of $421 million, 24 percent above fiscal 2014. In Q4, their networks segment grew 7 percent sequentially, contributing 70 percent of total sales.

During their earnings call, MACOM CEO John Croteau discussed the status of the company's GaN on Si development.

Nokia began their public exchange offer to acquire Alcatel-Lucent. ALU stockholders have until December 23 to accept the offer, with a majority of shares required to consummate the deal. Nokia's CEO says the timing of the combination will strengthen 5G development.

ON Semiconductor will acquire Fairchild Semiconductor for $2.4 billion. The combined company will focus on the automotive, industrial and smartphone markets.

Targeting small cells, Qorvo launched 1) three duplexers for bands 1, 3 and 7 and 2) four linear PAs with either 24.5 or 27.5 dBm output power at 16 to 17 percent power-added efficiency. Qorvo also announced their first production order for BAW multiplexers, used for carrier aggregation in LTE-A handsets (bands 1/3 and 39/41).

Qorvo held their second annual briefing for financial analysts. Among the interesting exchanges, this one with analyst Ed Snyder about the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G:

Raytheon successfully completed the preliminary design review (PDR) for the Navy's next-generation jammer (NGJ). NGJ will replace the ALQ-99 on the EA-18G.

TowerJazz and Maxim announced that TowerJazz is buying Maxim's 8-in fab in San Antonio for $40 million in stock. The fab adds 28,000 wafers/month capacity and will run the TowerJazz RF-SOI process, among others.

WIN Semiconductors has expanded their process portfolio with a 0.45 μm GaN on SiC process targeting base station PAs. The process achieves 7 W/mm with 17 dB linear gain and greater than 75 percent power-added efficiency.

Markets and Technology

The Wall Street Journal reported that semiconductor M&A deals this year have topped $120 billion, an all time record, and they say the party's not over.

Cellular — The slowdown in China's cellular infrastructure spending suggests a merger of operators, according to Doug Young, author of the China Business Blog.

An operator's view of 5G, this presentation at the recent ITSF conference by the U.K.'s EE. Hat tip to Zahid Ghadialy.

Ericsson forecasts 9.1 billion mobile subscriptions by 2021. 4.1 billion of those will be LTE and 150 million 5G.

Anyone remember when WiMAX was the front runner, not LTE? Sprint, the last adherent in the U.S., is converting their WiMAX spectrum to LTE.

Automotive — The ITU's world radiocommunication conference (WRC) allocated 79 GHz as a global band for automotive radar.

If you come across news items that you think I should include in this weekly summary, please send them to me at glerude@mwjournal.com.

Have a good week and a relaxing Thanksgiving for those in the U.S.