On June 5th, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) released its annual mid-year forecast projecting worldwide sales of $195.6 billion for 2009, a decline of 21.3% from sales of $248.6 billion in 2008. SIA projects that sales will begin to rebound in 2010, with year-on-year growth of 6.5 percent to $208.3 billion, ...

Emageon, Inc. (EMAG) operates in a mature large hospital picture archiving and communications system (PACS) market. The company might not grow successfully because of the superior financial resources, technical expertise, marketing, distribution, and support capabilities of its competitors. The overall strategic direction of the company is uncertain. A new Strategic Alternatives Committee has a broad mandate to pursue all strategic alternatives including sale of the company. Last April, the prior committee had recommended Emageon to continue as an independent company and focus on improving its core products and services. As the company depends on a small number of customers for a large portion of sales, the loss of any one can adversely affect its financial results. A trend towards perpetual licenses could cause greater volatility in Emageon's operating results, as revenue [More...]