Flextronics International (Singapore; www.flextronics.com), a leading injection moulder with facilities on three continents and a major supplier of electronic components to OEMs, has agreed to buy Solectron (Milpitas, California / USA; www.solectron.com) for USD 3.6 bn. This will create a powerful player in a number of markets. According to Flextronics CEO Mike McNamara, Solectron's strength in the high-end computing and telecom segments will be an invaluable addition to his company's existing capabilities and will make it a leader in most product segments.

Figures from UK market researcher AMI (www.amiplastics.com) suggest that the company operates some 1,500 injection moulding machines globally. As world's largest E&E system supplier, Flextronics will move into the top ranks of Tier 1 automotive suppliers. The merged operation, with a workforce of 200,000, will be present in 35 countries. Annual revenues are expected to exceed USD 30 bn.

Previous deals by Flextronics have included the acquisition of a Hewlett Packard (www.hp.com) facility in Singapore and the takeover of the entire production of medium-sized office machines from Xerox (www.xerox.com) – see Plasteurope.com Web of 08.11.2001. In the toy sector, Denmark's Lego group (www.lego.com) last year agreed to outsource large parts of its injection moulding activities to the Singapore company. In Q1 of this year, Lego moved its US production to the Mexico site operated by Flextronics, which also took over Lego's plant at Kladno / Czech Republic in August 2006.