"We are targeting segments within the semiconductor market that are growing faster," said Infineon CEO Peter Bauer. "The wireless market is bigger than before the crisis, driven by smartphones and emerging market phones."

ARM is more valuable as a standalone company and a buyer would be wasting money, said company CEO Warren East. The chip designer rose last week to an eight-year high on takeover talk.

German solar energy company Q-Cells SE (QCE.XE) raised prices for its key products in the second quarter due to higher material costs and can't rule out further price hikes, said Chief Executive Officer Nedim Cen.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse finally revealed the pricing and release date of the much anticipated HTC Evo 4G at a special event here Wednesday.

A reported visit by Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, to LG Display last month has prompted speculation that the world's second-largest maker of liquid crystal displays may supply the display panels for the new 4G iPhone.

STMicroelectronics could make some analog ICs on 300mm wafers at its Crolles-2 wafer fab near Grenoble, France, according to CEO Carlo Bozotti.

"ATIC is not in a position to do this in this stage of our capital deployment," said Ibrahim Ajami, CEO of Advanced Technology.

A color version of Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle e-reader may come eventually, but it won't be soon. Speaking Tuesday at the online retailer's annual shareholder meeting in Seattle, founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said that adding color to the Kindle's "electronic ink" display is a difficult technical challenge and that a color screen is "still a long way out." Bezos said he's seen things "in the laboratory" that are "still not ready for prime-time production."

Spansion CEO John Kispert also said he could not confirm a recent Nikkei report indicating Texas Instruments was in final talks to buy two plants owned by Spansion Japan, as Spansion Japan is now a separate entity from Spansion.

But he declined to comment directly on market rumors that Intel could buy Infineon's wireless unit, which produces chips used in mobile network technology. "We have nothing we have to sell urgently..."

"Applied's stronger second quarter results were led by revenues and profitability gains in our silicon and FPD businesses," said Mike Splinter, chairman and CEO of Applied Materials. "Global demand for computing and consumer electronics is giving our customers the confidence to make significant capacity additions, fueling what we believe will be a multiyear growth cycle..."

"I think it'll be a story in 2011, and it'll be pretty good penetration in 2012. But, you know, maybe I'm wrong," said Mark Durcan, president and CEO of Micron Technology.

ARM CEO Warren East said the company was planning to hire about 100 more engineers in 2010 - the first headcount additions for four years - mainly to work on high-end processors that are used in smartphones and netbooks.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is poised to secure net profits for the fiscal year ended December 21, 2010, according to company president and CEO Steve Milligan. Brisk demand for PC hard drives and fixed-cost reductions will contribute to its profit outlook.

Altera has reported net profits of US$153.2 million for the irst quarter, compared with profits of US$44.0 million a year earlier. "We are benefiting from growth in our 65nm and 40nm FPGAs as customer designs transition from prototyping into production," said company CEO John Daane.

"We booked one billion euro worth of orders in the first quarter of 2010 and expect a similar level of bookings in the second quarter," said ASML CEO Eric Meurice.

"If the NDRC tells me I have to move to China or I'll close the China market to you, then I'll consider that," said TSMC chairman and CEO Morris Chang. NDRC refers to the National Development and Reform Commission, China's powerful economic planning agency.

Applied Materials has a balance sheet that can support additional acquisitions, some potentially larger than its US$364 million purchase of Semitool last year, CEO Mike Splinter said in an interview ahead of the company's annual meeting with analysts Tuesday.

Hynix Semiconductor has appointed Oh Chul Kwon as the new CEO of the company.

Hwang Chang-gyu, former president of Samsung Electronics, was named to a government committee to oversee national research and development projects, officials said yesterday.

"Asia is a very strategic region for Spansion in the fast growing embedded electronics markets," said John Kispert, president and CEO of Spansion. "With the addition of SL Chan, we have strengthened our team with a veteran sales and marketing executive who will be a key asset for the company's new business strategy..."

The total number of employees in India is projected to rise to 10,000 from about 6,000 currently, Cisco CEO John Chambers said at a conference in New Delhi today, without specifying a timeframe for the expansion.

Kwon Young-soo, chief executive of LG Display, recently discussed the outlook for the LCD flat-panel industry this year, where the company sees the industry heading in terms of technology and his vision for the company.

Hynix Semiconductor creditors named Kwon Oh Chul as the new CEO of the world's second-largest maker of computer-memory chips. They also plan to sell 8% of Hynix in the first half of 2010 and another 5% in the second half if they fail to find a buyer.

Creditors of memory-chip maker Hynix Semiconductor plan to name a new chief executive to replace Kim Jong-Kap, whose three-year term ends in March 2010.

"We didn't use any of Samsung Electronics' copper-based processing technology in our memory lines. Hynix is confident we will be cleared of such allegations in court," CEO Kim Jong-kap told The Korea Times.

"We continued to see strong MOCVD demand as LED manufacturers ramp production for laptop and TV backlighting as well as general illumination," said Veeco CEO John Peeler.

"Although netbooks are small today - maybe 10% of the PC market at most - we believe over the next several years that could completely change around and that could be 90% of the PC market...," according to company CEO Warren East.

"Am I setting very aggressive targets? Yes," said Ibrahim Ajami, CEO of Advanced Technology Investment Co., Globalfoundries' controlling shareholder. "We need to be a US$5 billion company in the next two to three years."