In his usual no-nonsense manner, CEO TJ Rodgers described how he is navigating Cypress Semiconductor through bad economic conditions, and denied that the solar industry is losing competiveness as oil prices decline.

Infineon Technologies (Kulim) Sdn Bhd, Germany-based Infineon's front-end wafer fabrication plant at the Kulim Hi-Tech Park, will not retrench any of its 1,000 workers despite of the global economic downturn.

Cymer. which makes lasers used in semiconductor manufacturing, is cutting 10% of its work force and slashing pay and benefits as sharply lower demand cuts into revenue, the company said late Thursday.

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest mobile phone maker, said on Thursday it would pay US$400 million in royalties for patents held by wireless technology firm InterDigital.

Samsung Electronics on Friday streamlined its businesses into two major groups, joining its chip and LCD units and combining its telecom and media divisions.

ASML Holding NV, a key equipment supplier to Intel and other chip makers, swung to a fourth-quarter net loss, hurt by a slumping semiconductor market as customers struggled to get credit.

Spansion, the NOR flash manufacturer which bought Israel NROM company Saifun last year, has hired Barclay's Capital to investigate ways of selling itself to another company, or entering a partnership with another company.

ON Semiconductor has introduced the industry's first 4-amp supercapacitor LED flash driver for high-megapixel camera phones and standalone camera applications.

EV Group (EVG) and Brewer Science have announced the installation of an EVG 500 series wafer-bonding system at Brewer Science's Taiwan applications lab. Located in Hsinchu Science Park, this joint effort offers customers localized support in the Asia-Pacific region for 3D IC and other advanced process development programs.

Freescale Semiconductor reacted to weakening business conditions Tuesday with a series of austerity moves to cut spending. The Austin-based chipmaker said it will temporarily freeze all salaries and promotions, require executives to take pay cuts and force all workers to take five unpaid days off in the first quarter.

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba has confirmed it is in talks to buy Fujitsu's hard disk drive (HDD) arm. The Nikkei business daily said any deal between Fujitsu and Toshiba would be worth 30bn-40bn yen ($340m-$450m; £233m-£308m).

FormFactor, which specializes in wafer probe cards, has announced a global reorganization and cost reduction plan. As part of the plan the company will reduce its workforce by 22%.

The creditors of Hynix Semiconductor yesterday said they aimed to sell their 36% controlling stake in the world's second-largest maker of memory chips by the end of September.

When George W Bush wanted a vice-president, he appointed Dick Cheney to head up a search team. When the team reported back, the selected candidate turned out to be…Dick Cheney. The Cadence board, having been a major contributor to Cadence’s problems through their selection of executive management and guidance given them, have also been off searching for a new CEO. And the selected candidate is…Lip-Bu Tan, member of the Cadence board.

Last week's tech gadget extravaganza in Sin City drew an estimated 110,000 attendees, down 22% from last year's audited total. But according to the CEA, board members reported getting more business done this year than at any prior show, which may prompt organizers to take steps to limit future attendance in order to ensure the right people attend the event.

Seagate Technology on Monday shook up its executive ranks as the No. 1 maker of computer hard-disk drives replaced Chief Executive William Watkins with the company's chairman, Stephen Luczo. The move comes less than a week after Seagate said it would cut about 10% of its US-based workforce.

Hynix Semiconductor said on Monday it believed the fourth quarter of 2008 was the bottom in the ongoing memory chip downturn, and that it was open to further financing. "Although we do not expect any rapid recovery, we are cautiously hopeful that the fourth quarter [of 2008] may have represented a bottom in the downturn," Hynix CEO Kim Jong-kap said during a news conference.

KLA-Tencor, a microchip manufacturing equipment maker, slashed its sales estimate for the fiscal second quarter, citing economic turmoil and the ongoing decline of the semiconductor industry.

German memory chip maker Qimonda AG's long-term chances of survival are limited, despite its recent bailout, as Taiwan's chip makers strengthen their alliances with peers from Japan and the US. Those alliances could leave Qimonda without a technology partner and cast it as a minor player in the industry.

Loss making NOR flash memory market leader, Spansion is facing growing concerns over its liquidity status with credit ratings specialist, Fitch Ratings, lowering its view on approximately US$1.3 billion of debt to a 'negative' outlook. Fitch noted that Spansion's total debts were US$1.6 billion.

The efforts announced follow cost-reduction measures ON Semi began taking in 4Q 2008, including the reduction of 2009 planned capital expenditures to $50 million to $60 million from normalized yearly levels of $130 million to $140 million, temporary site shutdowns during the quarter, a hiring freeze, the elimination of second half 2008 bonus payments, and strict controls over all discretionary spending.

ASM International (ASMI) today announced it will cut 200 jobs as it shifts some manufacturing and operational procurement activities from the Netherlands to Singapore. The changes will take place over the next 12 months and involve the transfer of the remaining manufacturing and operational procurement activities for ASMI's vertical furnace product line from Almere, the Netherlands, to the company's front-end manufacturing operations in Singapore (FEMS).

The Cambridge-based company was already eight years old when on Jan. 6 1999 EE Times reported ARM's own prediction that the company would have 70 percent of the market for processors in the mobile phone handset business. This was a statistic that came to define ARM's early success.

Ulrich Schumacher, former Chief Executive Officer of Infineon Technologies AG, has been charged in a bribery case, the Munich Public Prosecutor said.

The SD Association unveiled a new SD card specification this week at the 2009 International CES that it said can support data storage capacities of up to 2TB with read/write speeds up to 104MB/sec. The specification, called SDXC (eXtended Capacity), uses Microsoft's exFAT file system to support the large capacity and interoperability in a broad range of PCs, consumer electronics and mobile phones.

Micron Technology has announced that the US District Court of Delaware has found that patents Rambus had asserted against Micron are unenforceable. The Delaware Court found that “the spoliation conduct was extensive, including within its scope the destruction of innumerable documents relating to all aspects of Rambus’ business.”

Elpida Memory announced that it has completed the early redemption of the outstanding unsecured convertible bonds (CBs) worth 44 billion yen (US$1.33 billion).

ARC International has warned of lower than expected revenues from semiconductor IP licensing at the end of 2008. "For 2009, management continues to remain cautious due to continuing uncertainty in the economic environment and fundamental industry changes," said the semiconductor IP developer.