STMicroelectronics fell the most in a decade in Paris trading after CEO Carlo Bozotti said there will be a "correction" in sales and gross margin in the third quarter because of difficulties at customer Nokia.

Patent licensing company Rambus made a net loss of US$10.6 million on revenues of US$66.2 million in the second quarter of 2011. However, the company guided that it would be profitable in the third quarter on rising revenues.

As of the end of June 2011, it had US$76 billion in cash and investments. No tech company has more.

Citing strong global smartphone adoption and the "expanded opportunities" afforded by its completed acquisition of Wi-Fi chipmaker Atheros, Qualcomm also raised its revenue and (non-GAAP) earnings guidance for the rest of the year.

Acer dropped from No. 2 to the No. 4 position in the worldwide PC market in the second quarter of 2011, according to Gartner. It had a great deal of inventory in the distribution channel in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Acer's problems stemmed from its low-price, high-volume business model, which is no longer effective.

"What foundries are seeing more and more, and what we're seeing overall, is a very tight linkage to consumer demand. All of us are disappointed with demand for PCs this year, and tablets probably will be 20 million units short of what people thought was possible for the year..."

South Korean consumer electronics giant LG Electronics has slashed its forecast for 2011 smartphone sales as the company struggles to compete against aggressive giants like HTC, Samsung and Apple.

"It is a bit surprising that we have not seen a more significant impact on our global IT spending forecast as a results of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, but despite widespread concerns about disruptions to the supply of critical components in the initial aftermath of the natural disaster, there has not been a dramatic impact on overall IT spending," said Richard Gordon, research VP at Gartner.

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.

IC Insights forecasts 1.55 billion cellular phones will ship in 2011, a 9% increase over the 1.4 billion shipped in 2010.

TSMC could make its first 3D chips commercially available before the end of 2011, according to a person close to the situation who requested anonymity.

IDC expects Android, which passed Symbian as the leading operating system worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2010, to grow to more than 40% of the market in the second half of 2011.

Samsung's total capacity is expected to be eight million 4-inch OLED panels per month by the end of 2011. But the display maker is also said to have delayed investments for larger screen sizes of 6 inches to 9 inches until 2012.

STMicroelectronics plans to significantly increase its MEMS production capacity to more than 3 million sensors a day by the end of 2011 to sustain exploding demand.

Nokia's Windows Phones will start coming out at a relatively rapid clip after the first one appears later in 2011, said Jo Harlow, Nokia's executive vice president of smart devices.

GT Solar International has received the largest order to date for its polysilicon production equipment from South Korean firm OCI.

The economy shrank by a much worse-than-expected annualised 3.7% in the first three months of 2011, marking the second consecutive quarter of contraction, which economists define as a technical recession.

Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) plans to increase its stake in the Globalfoundries microchip business to over 90% by the end of 2011, according to a senior executive. ATIC's stake rises as it pours investment into Globalfoundries, in which it last year acquired a 65.8% stake for US$2.1 billion.

The consumer confidence index fell to 33.1 in April 2011, down from 38.6 in March, according to the Cabinet Office. A reading below 50 suggests consumer pessimism.

Canadian Solar Inc.'s first-quarter profit soared as shipments jumped and gross margins expanded, although the bottom line missed analysts expectations as silicon costs increased and the company recorded a derivatives loss.

The 30 new jobs come in addition to the previously announced 300 engineers and technicians positions that Samsung Austin Semiconductor is hiring in the first six months of 2011.

Smartphone vendors shipped a total of 99.6 million units in the first quarter of 2011, nearly double from 55.4 million units a year ago.

As part of the investment volume planned for the 2011 fiscal year, Infineon Technologies is investing about Euro 198 million in production capacity expansion and in R&D in Austria. Infineon intends to create 400 jobs in Austria in the course of this fiscal year.

Toshiba has said it returned to the black for the year to March 2011, but warned the outlook remains uncertain due to the impact of the massive quake and tsunami in Japan.

The worldwide mobile phone market grew 19.8% on year in the first quarter of 2011 fueled by high smartphone growth, especially in emerging markets, and gains made by market challengers, according to IDC.

Infineon's decision to exit the wireless business to focus on chips for cars and energy-efficient machines has paid off, as strong second-quarter results let the German chipmaker raise its full-year outlook.

A Chinese manufacturing index declined in April from March, indicating that growth may moderate in the world's second-biggest economy after the government raised interest rates and allowed faster gains in the yuan.

Japanese automobile sales more than halved in April - the biggest monthly drop on record - and are not expected to recover until late 2011, raising concerns the country's leading vehicle manufacturers will post losses for the first half of the year.

Chairman Ben Bernanke said he expected growth for 2011 to be between 3.1% and 3.3%, compared with the previous forecast of 3.4-3.9%. He also hinted the Fed would not pump more money into the economy after June.

The proposed transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2011. SiBEAM provides high-speed wireless communication products for uncompressed HD video in consumer electronics and PC applications.

Qualcomm reported record quarterly revenues and raised its guidance for 2011 as global demand for smartphones and tablets grew. Supply-chain concerns stemming from the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan had not affected Qualcomm's ability to make chips, and it had seen very little impact on demand for its products, the company said.

GDP will expand 0.8% in 2011, down sharply from the 1.7% growth previously forecast. But as reconstruction spending gains pace, the economy will expand 2.3% in 2012, faster than previous estimates for 1.3% growth, the OECD said.

The event was postponed due to the ongoing recovery efforts in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake and at the request of Japanese government agencies to help conserve energy resources during the summer months. SEMICON Japan 2011 is now scheduled for December 7-9 in the same venue as PVJapan.

"2011 started strong, with customer demand in January and February tracking our expectations for a first quarter of above-seasonal growth," said Rich Templeton, TI CEO. "But the Japan earthquake that's taken such a heartbreaking human toll in the country also disrupted local demand starting in mid-March and impaired operations at two of our factories there."

The company said its customers are asking for a higher number of shipments in the second half of calendar year 2011, compared with the first half. Analysts view Lam's top customer, Samsung Electronics', recent decision to cut capital spending as hurting its fourth-quarter results.