Results from Europe's big chipmakers show business conditions have deteriorated quickly in previously healthy markets for auto electronics and industrial components, adding to concerns over the industry's traditional drivers - computers and phones.

Imagination Technologies has announced the appointment of industry veteran James Liu as general manager for its expanding China operations. Liu brings to Imagination 20+ years of experience in the China electronics design industry.

The European Commission (EC), the administrative and executive body of the 28-nation European Union (EU), has opened two antitrust investigations into the behavior of Qualcomm with regard to its market dominance of semiconductors used in consumer electronics.

Doubts over the sales prospects of Samsung Electronics' new flagship smartphones are damping expectations of a rapid turnaround for the South Korean giant, even though profit likely continues to recover from last year's troughs.

Samsung Electronics saw the sales of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) reach to a record level in the first quarter of 2015, industry data showed Monday, with its market share also hitting its highest since 2011.

Samsung Electronics recently signed a new SSD supply contract for its 256GB SSDs to be used in the laptops of major suppliers such as Apple and Microsoft.

Greater China, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong, is now Apple's second-largest market and has become a battleground for the company as it vies with Samsung Electronics Co. and Xiaomi Corp. for smartphone supremacy.

The US International Trade Commission staff is recommending that Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm be cleared of patent-infringement accusations brought by Nvidia.

Samsung Electronics has asked that a full bench of an appeals court should review a damages award in a long-standing patent infringement dispute with arch-rival Apple.

Synopsys has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Atrenta, a privately held provider of SoC realization solutions for the semiconductor and consumer electronics industries.

Japan's struggling electronics maker Sharp is set to post a net loss of JPY180 billion (US$1.45 billion) in the current year through next March, Kyodo News reported on Thursday, without citing sources.

Rohm has moved to acquire a 200mm wafer fab from Renesas Electronics for JPY450 million (US$3.7 million).

Avago Technologies, looking to acquire a fellow chipmaker, has reached out to potential targets including Xilinx, Renesas Electronics and Maxim Integrated Products, according to people familiar with the matter.

Samsung Electronics has inked an agreement to produce its 3D NAND solid state drives for Google, in a deal deemed to beef up the South Korean manufacturer's gameplay against its global competitors.

Qualcomm's second-quarter profit dropped 46%, mainly because of a large fine the company had to pay in China for settling antitrust issues. The company also cut its revenue outlook for 2015, citing loss of business for its Snapdragon processor from key customer Samsung Electronics and a concentration of the premium market around two players - Apple and Samsung, among other factors.

Samsung Electronics is set to spend at least another 10 trillion won (US$9.2 billion) to boost capacity at a new South Korean chip plant, a 64% increase over announced investment plans, domestic online news service MoneyToday reported.

Texas Instruments has forecast current-quarter revenue below analysts' expectations, citing weak demand for its chips from communication equipment and consumer electronics markets and a strong dollar.

Samsung Electronics' mobile chief warned on Thursday of limited supplies of its new curved-screen smartphones because of challenges in manufacturing the screens.

Booming sales and manufacturing of smartphones in China by upstart brands such as Xiaomi have helped to make the country's electronics industry one of the world's largest.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has decided to sell devices through a leading electronics retail chain in India, part of its effort to move away from online-only sales and boost growth in the world's third-largest smartphone market.

Samsung is already pushing out 14nm technology, using its own Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge smartphones to demonstrate its impressive new fabrication technology. But most don't know that the South Korean electronics giant has partnered with Globalfoundries, with the latter now spinning up its production of 14nm technology.

RBC Capital Markets chip analyst Doug Freedman this morning writes that chip maker Nvidia, which makes no parts itself, appears to have moved some of its orders for making its chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) to Samsung Electronics, and that this may presage giving some foundry business to Intel.

Samsung Electronics gave a big boost on Wednesday to Seoul's ambitions to become a global hub for the offshore yuan business, saying it was preparing to start trading the Chinese currency directly with the South Korean won.

Sony has said it will spin off its video-and-audio business into a separate company as part of a three-year plan to return to profit.

Samsung Electronics has appointed a new smartphone marketing chief, less than a month before the expected unveiling of its next flagship Galaxy S handset.

Sony plans to cut around 1,000 additional jobs in its struggling smartphone division as it tries to bring its electronics business back into the black, sources said on Wednesday.

Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, will cut its massive workforce, the company told Reuters, as the Apple supplier faces declining revenue growth and rising wages in China.

Samsung Electronics said it is considering a stock split, the latest signal that the company is willing to bend to demands from shareholders and regulators as its shares trade at more than US$1,200 each.

Regarding the occupational disease controversy over workers at its semiconductor plants, Samsung Electronics has announced that it will extend its scope of compensation to include its workers who developed any blood-related cancers, including leukemia, and all former workers who left the company a decade ago.

Lee Don-tae, former co-president of UK design consulting firm Tangerine, founded by Apple's Jony Ive, has been hired by Samsung Electronics as its new head of global design.

BlackBerry and Samsung Electronics have denied reports that they are in talks about Samsung potentially acquiring the Canadian smartphone maker.

Canon and other Japanese electronics companies want to bring production of some goods back home, reversing a years-old trend of overseas manufacturing as a rapid decline in the value of the yen makes local goods more competitive.

Samsung Electronics plans to invest KRW13.5 trillion (US$12 billion) in semiconductor facilities next year, up from the KRW13 trillion spent in 2014.

In India, probably the most important market for Xiaomi after China, Swedish electronics maker Ericsson has alleged that the Chinese company is infringing on eight Ericsson patents.

Samsung Electronics has joined hands with US-based Thermo Fisher Scientific in a bid to expand its presence in the medical industry with its smartphone business slowing down.

Samsung Group announced annual management changes at its business units on Monday but said top executives at its flagship unit Samsung Electronics will remain in their current positions as the company seeks to reverse recent profit declines.

Samsung Electronics' semiconductor sales are expected to jump 15.6% on year in 2014, closing the gap with industry leader Intel, a global market tracker said Sunday.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics has secured a licence to invest US$3 billion to expand its production in northern Vietnam, the Vietnamese government said.

Samsung Electronics spent KRW1.38 trillion (US$1.2 billion) in patent fees in the nine months to September, the most in four years, the company said.