James, I assume that the downgrade is related to SLR and JBIL, since both are customers of HDCO. Also inventory buildup at computer resellers such as MICA. I think that everyone agrees that there will be a slowdown until inventory imbalances clear in the boxmaker area- but that is only IMO about 35% of HDCO's business remember (and indirectly through supplying components to SLR and JBIL).
Also people may forget, but just before HDCO announced the acquisition of CCIR, CCIR itself acquired (Feb 9, 1998) a design firm with a very good customer list.... Reprinted from CCIR thread:
EST
Reply # of 54
Company Press Release
Continental Circuits Acquires PCA Design Inc.
PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 9, 1998--Continental Circuits Corp. (Nasdaq:CCIR - news) Monday announced that it has completed the purchase of substantially all of the assets and
business of PCA Design Inc., a privately held, leading-edge printed circuit board and interconnect technology engineering and design firm that also provides training services in advanced fabrication
processes.
PCA Design will become a division of CCIR of California Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Continental Circuits.
With headquarters in Saratoga, Calif., PCA Design is widely recognized in the industry as the leader in advanced circuit engineering and design methods and has two regional engineering centers located in Boulder, Colo., and Austin, Texas. PCA Design had approximately $2 million in sales in 1997.
Leading customers of the firm in 1997 included numerous U.S. and offshore divisions of Hewlett Packard, Honeywell, IBM, Intel, McDonnell Douglas, National Semiconductor, Phillips Electronics and Texas Instruments. The purchase price of the acquisition and full terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The management team of PCA Design, including founder Steve Bird, will stay in place
to run the acquired business division.
Frederick G. McNamee, Continental Circuits chairman and chief executive officer, commented on the acquisition, saying, ''This is really an outstanding acquisition for us as we move toward becoming a one-stop supplier of our customers' needs in high-technology manufacturing processes for printed circuit board and interconnect products.
''PCA Design is a leader in cutting-edge circuit design engineering and is recognized by the DYCO strate consortium as the world's foremost industry expert in the important and emerging area of Microvia design methodology. Also, its training and technical expertise offer key support resources for our expanding quick-turn capabilities.''
PCA Design specializes in integration and development of advanced circuit and interconnect design and manufacturing processes, including fabrication methods such as Microvia, backplane design, flex, printed circuit board packaging and assembly for each of the processes.
Continental Circuits manufactures complex, multilayered circuit boards and flexible circuits used in sophisticated electronic equipment produced by leaders in the computer, communications,
instrumentation and industrial controls industries.
''Safe Harbor'' Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The statements in this news release regarding the company's anticipated future growth, performance, demand for the company's products, improvement and expanded quick-turn capabilities, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward- looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, such factors as changes in demand for, and acceptance of the company's products, its ability to hire trained personnel, to receive required capital equipment on anticipated delivery dates, to develop the manufacturing processes required to expand its flexible printed circuit, quick-turn and inner-layer manufacturing capabilities, manage growth and to effectively integrate recent acquisitions into its existing operations. Other risks include possible ramp-up delays for the Phoenix inner-layer facility and the company's ability to find suitable expansion opportunities. Any of these assumptions could prove inaccurate, and therefore, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking information will prove accurate."
IMO HDCO is making a strong move into the mintiaturization area and expanding its customer list far beyond the boxmakers....
Sincerely,
Doug F. |
