Whirlpool of the US has agreed on a US$552 million proposal to take control of a Chinese maker of fridges and washing machines as it tries to gain a better foothold in the fast-growing consumer markets of Asia.

TSMC recently held a job fair in upstate New York, helping to drive up expectations that the chipmaker is planning to open a chip fabrication plant in the area to build mobile processors for Apple.

Qualcomm rose 3% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company booked US$6.2 billion in its third quarter, its twelfth straight quarter of double-digit gains, and raised its outlook for the full year.

In an average day, more than 60% of all Web-enabled devices exchange traffic with the tech giant's servers. That means Google is now bigger than Facebook, Netflix, and Twitter combined.

Huawei has denied claims made by a former US Central 簫Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief, Michael Hayden, that it has spied for the Chinese government.

A lack of new licensing agreements triggered a 7% fall in adjusted pre-tax profits last financial year, and analysts have suggested that the company, whose designs are used to make graphics-processing chips used in mobile devices, could be volnerable to increased competition from US rivals Qualcomm and Nvidia.

With the return of PC manufacturing to the US, the company is adding 115 new manufacturing jobs in North Carolina and is on track to fully ramp up production by the end of June.

A Senate committee said that Apple had used "a complex web of offshore entities" to avoid paying billions of dollars in US income taxes.

David Falvo, an ex-IT worker who resides in Fulton County, accuses Globalfoundries of violating US and New York labor laws in a range of ways.

Gold prices have suffered their sharpest fall since the 1980s, heightening fears among investors that the precious metal's decade-long bull run has ended.

An investigation is under way after two explosions near the finishing line of the Boston Marathon left three people dead and at least 140 injured.

Worldwide semiconductor revenues reached US$299.9 billion in 2012, down 2.6% from 2011, according to Gartner.

Worldwide microprocessor sales are expected to regain strength in 2013 and grow 12% to US$65.3 billion after rising just 5% in 2012 to US$58.2 billion due to weakness in standard PCs and the shaky global economy, according to IC Insights.

The new plant will take approximately two years to build, and it will create 3,500 construction jobs, as well as 800 full-time jobs inside the plant once its complete.

As well as its US regional headquarters, Sony has also indicated its willingness to sell the building housing its television business in Tokyo.

Globalfoundries has been awarded a US$1 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank of the US to ship American-made computer chip-making tools to its operation in Germany.

Winter weather complicated travel for many Americans on Wednesday - and left six dead in weather-related accidents, and even forced one NBA team to take the rare step of postponing a game due to the conditions.

A federal jury in Pennsylvania on Wednesday ordered Marvell Technology to pay US$1.17 billion in damages after finding it infringed on two patents held by Carnegie Mellon University.

The agreement will result in settlement of all existing patent litigation between the companies and withdrawal of pending actions in the US, UK and Canada related to a recent arbitration tribunal decision.

The US International Trade Commission said Tuesday it won't challenge an administrative law judge's decision that Nanya Technology could end its memory patent probe into bankrupt Elpida Memory after licensee Micron Technology offered to acquire Elpida for US$2.5 billion.

Nokia has asked courts in the US, UK and Canada to block sales of rival Blackberry smartphones.

Some analysts said that the latest decision by the court, giving Samsung access to Apple's deal with HTC, may have a big impact on Samsung's legal battle with Apple.

On 14 November, people in Madrid and all across Europe participated in a demonstration against government austerity measures.

Hurricane Sandy's economic toll is poised to exceed US$20 billion after the biggest Atlantic storm slammed into the Eastern US, damaging homes and offices and flooding subways in America's most populated city.

Sandy made landfall in New Jersey, causing a record surge of seawater in New York City, flooding car and subway tunnels and leaving much of lower Manhattan without power.

The two firms should be barred from any mergers and acquisitions in the US, the panel has recommended in its report.

A temporary sales ban on Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer in the US has been lifted by a US court.

The US central bank has moved to kick-start economic recovery by restarting its policy of pumping money into the economy via quantitative easing.

Washington had repeatedly urged Taipei to ease restrictions on US beef, indicating that the stalled trade talks between the two sides hinge on the issue.

Samsung has accused Apple of resorting to litigation in an effort to limit consumer choice after the iPhone maker said it was seeking to stop the sale of Galaxy S3 smartphones in the US.

China is investigating whether exporters from the US and South Korea sold solar-grade polysilicon below cost, a practice known as dumping, as part of a probe following complaints from four domestic companies.

Semiconductor revenues worldwide will grow 4.6% in 2012 to US$315 billion, according to IDC. Revenues will grow at a CAGR of 4.8% from 2011-2016, reaching $380 billion in 2016.