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EL SEGUNO, CA — Eight of the Top 10 semiconductor firms suffered revenue declines for the year, according to iSuppli Corp.

The research firm's 2008 reveal that the majority of the industry’s leading companies not only saw sales declines, they also underperformed the overall chip industry for the year.

iSuppli cited a focus on poorly performing markets as a common thread. Some 60% of the Top 25 semiconductor suppliers saw year-over-year revenues decline as well.

Dale Ford, senior vice president, market intelligence services, noted many of the hardest-hit suppliers focus on semiconductor segments that performed poorly during the year — memory, DSPs, analog ICs and standard logic.

Among the nearly 300 companies covered in iSuppli’s global semiconductor rankings, 43% achieved flat-to-positive growth during 2008.

But among the Top 25 suppliers, just 10 firms grew — no. 5 STMicroelectronics, no. 8 Qualcomm, no. 11 NEC Electronics, no. 14 Broadcom, no. 15 Panasonic, no. 18 Sharp Electronics, no. 20 Rohm, no. 22 Marvell Technology, no. 23 MediaTek and no. 24 Fujitsu — and only six actually increasing their sales organically. Qualcomm, NEC, Panasonic, Sharp, Marvell and Fujitsu — saw sales climb 1.5% to 15.3%.

No. 9 Hynix posted the largest revenue decline among the Top 25, at 33.4%, which dropped the memory maker three spots.

ARLINGTON, VA -- Electronic component orders continued to fall in February, but not as sharply as in January, according to the monthly index compiled by the Electronic Components Association. The 12-month average, comparing this year's results to last year's, continued a descent that began last summer.

Although the overall trend continued to be down there was a glimmer of hope from a couple of companies that reported orders above 2008 levels in the last week of the month.

"I believe the numbers show that the economic downturn is affecting different companies in different ways," said Bob Willis, ECA president, in a statement.