Cadian Capital Management and TIG Advisors are among Altera shareholders that have sent letters to the company's management, urging them to return to the negotiating table with Intel, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Aruba makes hardware and software used to build Wi-Fi networks for customers including China's Dalian Wanda Group Co., which uses the technology in shopping malls.

Samsung Electronics is considering a major leadership shake-up, according to people familiar with the matter, part of an attempt to revive its fortunes after a difficult year that has hurt its profitability, market share and stock price.

SK Hynix plans to build a new factory in South Korea to meet the growing demand for mobile devices, according to two people familiar with the matter.

A consortium that includes the wireless company Qualcomm, the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management and BlackBerry's co-founders, Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, is preparing a bid for the company ahead of a Monday deadline, according to people briefed on the process.

Lenovo Group is actively considering a bid for all of struggling Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest sign of the voracious appetite of Chinese companies for foreign acquisitions.

Between March 2012 and October 2012, the proportion of people who used a desktop or notebook computer for tweeting fell from 77% to 64%. In the same period the proportion who used a mobile phone for tweeting rose from 53% to 64%.

Lenovo, which has maintained a small IC design team consisting of about 10 people over the last decade, is now committed to expanding this team to about 100 engineers by the middle of 2013, according to a China-based industry source with direct knowledge of the company's recruitment of chip designers.

Samsung's disclosure comes after people familiar with Apple's plans said last month the company has about 100 product designers working on a wristwatch-like device that may perform similar functions to the iPhone and iPad.

South Korea's overall unemployment rate remained steady at 3% in December 2012.

A record 247 million people visited stores and websites between Thursday and Sunday and spent a total of $59.1bn (瞿36.9bn), 13% more than last year, the National Retail Federation (NRF) said.

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

Apple and Qualcomm were rebuffed in separate attempts to invest cash with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. in a bid to secure exclusive access to smartphone chips, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Qualcomm is providing chips for new devices from Dell and Samsung Electronics that run Microsoft's Windows RT operating system, people familiar with the matter said.

Flash flooding caused by heavy rain has forced the evacuation of more than 3,000 people across Taiwan and unleashed landslides that have killed four people.

Sony plans to reduce its workforce by an estimated 10,000 jobs, or about 6% of its global staff, as part of new Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai's restructuring plan, people familiar with the matter said Monday.

Research In Motion has turned down takeover overtures from Amazon.com and other potential buyers because the BlackBerry maker prefers to fix its problems on its own, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

"This is going to take a lot longer than people are assuming, until the end of 2012 at least..."

Taiwan may consider a peace treaty with political rival China in 10 years, but only if the Taiwanese people agree and there is sufficient trust between the two sides, said President Ma Ying-jeou.

Cisco Systems, the largest networking-equipment company, may cut as many as 10,000 jobs, or about 14% of its workforce, to revive profit growth, according to two people familiar with the plans.

Nokia said the staff reductions will happen in phases until the end of 2012 and all the employees concerned can remain with the company until the end of 2011. Nokia previously said it plans to reduce its Finnish workforce by 1,400 people.

Skype Technologies, the Internet-calling service being bought by Microsoft, is firing senior executives before the deal closes, a move that reduces the value of their payout, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Microsoft is close to a deal to buy Internet phone company Skype Technologies for between US$7 billion and US$8 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, adding that the deal could be announced as early as Tuesday.

The tech sector is well represented on this year's list, which overall includes 1,210 people who together control US$4.5 trillion in wealth. The highest-ranked Taiwanese tech execs are the husband-and-wife team of Cher Wang and Wenchi Chen.

For years, Verizon customers were clamoring for the iPhone, but now that the phone is here, evidence is mounting that it's more of a dud than a hit.

The phones are built for people who use Facebook as their primary means of communication, according to INQ. The home screen comes with a feed for seeing friends' updates, pictures, videos and web pages.

In the last few years, mobile phones have become status symbols. Use a fancy one and people will think you're cool. Use a more traditional one and folks stare as though you just pulled up to the party in a Buick.

China's central bank said Tuesday it will raise its benchmark deposit and lending rates by 0.25 percentage point each effective Wednesday, in its latest move to tighten liquidity and manage inflation. The People's Bank of China said in a statement it will raise the one-year yuan lending rate to 6.06% from 5.81%, and the one-year yuan deposit rate to 3.00% from 2.75%.

"Things have changed quite a bit," says Robert Passaro, a senior product manager for BMW. "We're tapping into where people are living their digital lives now, and that's on the smartphone. It makes sense to leverage that and integrate it into the car."

Germany's planned cuts to subsidies for photovoltaic solar energy installations could take effect as early as July, people familiar with the matter have said.

It should come as no surprise that Apple and Android are the two "most desired" smartphone systems, according to a new Nielsen survey of mobile phone users. But the results vary a bit based on the people who were surveyed.

"There are people who want something other than the iPhone, and Softbank is not short-changing those customers," said Softbank CEO. He stressed that all of the seven smartphone models the company is launching carry the latest 2.2 version of Android, which is "far superior" to the previous 2.1 version.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics has announced that it is working on a new joint software platform for its televisions and mobile phones. This is seen as a way of pushing developers to create apps for its platform, thus indirectly increasing the number of people who would want to buy its devices.

People who have phones with Android operating systems are more likely to open an advertisement inside an app than are iPhone users, says Nielson Company.

The picture painted by the report is varied, but the general pattern is one of fewer people moving to foreign countries for work. For example, there was a sharp decline in the number of Mexicans moving to the United States.