The latest recession was a cold shower on the euphoric boom period for the industry in 2000. Worldwide revenues grew 36 percent in 2000, over the previous year, followed by a 33 percent decline in 2001. “We learned one very important lesson from the bubble&#8212not to extrapolate,” says Rosa Luis, director of marketing and sales for Advanced Forecasting. “Extrapolations caused a huge build-up of overcapacity that triggered a devastating recession. They are the worst forecasting tools to predict a change in direction. This is exactly what happened to the industry in 2000 (not to mention 1984, 1988 and 1995).”

(November 10, 2003) Willow Grove, Penn.&#8212Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. and Nidec Tosok Corp. of Zama City, Japan are combining products and technologies to provide integrated solutions for high-speed, reel-to-reel packaging of discreet devices.