Here's a recap of recent industry news that caught my attention. Last week was a busy week of acquisitions and earnings releases, many of which provided insightful information.

Companies and Products

Analog Devices is acquiring Linear Technology, spending $14.8 billion for Linear's products, technology and $1.5 billion in revenue (fiscal year 2015). ADI's fiscal 2015 revenue was $3.5 billion. Linear will expand ADI's markets and improve margins by several points.

Apple reported quarterly revenue of $42 billion, which was down 15 percent from the prior year period, with revenue in China down 33 percent. The company shipped 40.4 million iPhones, down 15 percent year-over-year.

Ericssson CEO Hans Vestberg resigned. The disappointing quarterly results seemed to bring simmering investor discontent to a boil, forcing the board to take action.

Huawei announced first half 2016 financial results. Revenue grew 40 percent from the same period last year, while operating margin dropped from 18 to 12 percent. Segment results were not reported, yet judging from the drop in operating margin, smartphones likely drove the growth.

Infinite RF, the parent company of Pasternack and Fairview Microwave announced a merger with L-com Global Connectivity, based in North Andover, Massachusetts. L-com adds wired and wireless connectivity products and custom manufacturing capabilities to the portfolio.

Keysight joined the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance to support 5G technology development. Founded in 2006, the alliance works to ensure that next generation mobile network infrastructure and devices will meet the needs and expectations of operators and end users.

MACOM reported fiscal Q3 revenue of $142.3 million, up 5.4 percent from the prior quarter and 33 percent more than the prior year's quarter. The networks segment generated 73.5 percent of total revenue.

During the earnings call, MACOM's CEO, John Croteau, updated analysts on the status of their GaN on Si process qual and the outlook for wireless infrastructure revenue.

Also during the earnings call, Croteau and MACOM's CFO, Robert McMullan, made some stern comments about their litigation with Infineon over rights to the Nitronex GaN on Si IP for RF applications. This is turning into a significant strategic battle, given Infineon's planned acquisition of Wolfspeed and their clear intent to pursue GaN on Si.

National Instruments (NI) reported Q2 revenue of $306 million, which was 7 percent above the prior quarter and 1 percent above the prior year's quarter. Asia Pacific region revenue grew 23 percent from the prior year's quarter, while revenue from the Americas declined 10 percent and EMEIA dropped 2 percent.

NXP reported that RF power segment revenue was below plan in Q2, because of program push-outs in China and India. During the earnings call, CEO Rick Clemmer discussed the volatility yet profitability of the base station market.

Clemmer also made some interesting comments about NXP's market position in auto radar and the size of the advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) opportunity.

Peregrine Semiconductor named Takaki Murata as VP and GM of their high performance analog segment. Murata has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and 12 years experience in a variety of roles at Murata. Murata acquired Peregrine in December 2014. Duncan Pilgrim, the prior VP and GM, is now GM of the RF business segment at Integrated Device Technology (IDT).

Raytheon's Q2 revenue grew 3 percent year-over-year to $6.0 billion. The book-to-bill ratio was 1.18, with funded backlog reaching $26 billion.

UMS introduced a 24 GHz transceiver for short range automotive, industrial and security sensor applications. Based on a radar architecture, the CHC2442-QPG integrates a single transmit channel, dual receive channels, VCO and switchable prescalar.

ViaSat received a $33 million contract to provide satellite connectivity to Air Force One and other government aircraft. The satellite links will support full motion, high definition video; two-way communications using HD video conference calling or voice over internet protocol (VoIP); access to real-time intelligence and location based, live sensor data.

Verizon won the bidding to acquire Yahoo's operating businesses. Added to their prior acquisition of AOL, Verizon moves further from its roots as a telco to become a content provider with arguably the largest online audience.

Markets and Technology

Cellular — China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) reported cellular and broadband subscribers at the end of June. Total mobile subscribers were 1.3 billion. 4G subscribers reached 613 million, with 28 million added in June. 3G subscribers dropped 13 million during the month, to 225 million.

Drones — Amazon was granted special rules by the U.K.'s Civil Aviation Authority, allowing the company to test and develop drone technology in the U.K. The relaxed rules allow Amazon to fly drones out of sight and test "sense and avoid" technology to avoid collisions.

Across the pond in the U.S., Flirtey completed the first FAA-approved drone delivery to a customer, from a 7-Eleven store to a home in Reno, Nevada. I hope the drone didn't spill the slurpee.

Silicon Technology — NC State and the U.S. Army Research Office reported that they have successfully integrated novel oxides on silicon. The oxides have ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties, which may enable new IC functions.

If you come across news that you think is worth including in the weekly report, please send it to me at glerude@mwjournal.com. Your feedback is always welcome.