The earthquake that struck Saturday night off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, shaking northern and eastern Japan, has tripped up operations for many companies in a faint echo of the disruption brought by the much larger quake that hit the same area in 2011.

A powerful earthquake that hit Japan on Saturday was an aftershock of the devastating 9.0 magnitude quake that struck the same area almost 10 years ago, according to the national Meteorological Agency.

Qualcomm has announced that the European Commission's Directorate General for Competition, after a 10-year investigation, issued a finding that Qualcomm engaged in predatory pricing practices for some sales of three cellular baseband chipsets to two customers during a few calendar quarters between 2009 and 2011, and fined Qualcomm EUR242 million. Qualcomm plans to appeal the finding to the General Court of the European Union.

HTC's share of the global smartphone market collapsed from 10.7% in 2011 to 0.05% in 2019. Current and former employees blame poor business decisions and a company culture that is impervious to criticism.

There is increasing evidence that Intel is likely to gain 20%-30% share in the iPhone 7 modem - the first time since 2011 with the iPhone 4 that Intel will be a baseband supplier for Apple.

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.

According to industry sources, Apple has decided to discontinue its use of triple-level cell (TLC) NAND, since the company believes that the functional defects plaguing the 64GB iPhone 6 and the 128GB iPhone 6+ stem from a problem in the controller IC of the TLC NAND flash. The controller IC in question is reportedly made by SSD maker Anobit, which was sold to Apple in 2011.

Samsung Electronics on Thursday said it would revamp its smartphone line-up to take on competitors in the rapidly growing mid-to-low range segment, after third-quarter earnings set it on course for its worst year since 2011.

After strong gains in 2010 and 2011, power transistor sales fell more than 8% in 2012 to US$12.3 billion primarily due to weak economic growth and high levels of uncertainty, which caused equipment makers to rein in semiconductor purchases, according to IC Insights.

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

Seven O-S-D product categories and device groups reached record-high sales in 2012 compared to 14 new records being set in 2011.

Japan's industrial output tumbled more than forecast to the lowest level since the aftermath of the record 2011 earthquake. In contrast, South Korea's industrial output exceeded estimates in November and the nation's current-account surplus rose to a record.

A growing economy typically should see wages grow faster than inflation. This has been the case for most of Taiwan's peers: From 2000 to 2011, real wages - or wages minus inflation - rose an average of 3.8% a year in South Korea, 1.8% in Singapore and 0.8% in Hong Kong. But in Taiwan, workers' real salaries have actually seen zero growth in that time period.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) was the world's largest pure play foundry for MEMS devices in 2011, posting a phenomenal 201% increase in revenue as it gained share from rivals and capitalized on new income streams.

Nikia will squeeze the current four big sales regions into two sales areas in China, namely the North and South sales regions, after its sales in the country dipped 18% to US$6.7 billion in 2011 compared with a 23% rise in 2010.

Worldwide IT spending is on pace to reach US$3.6 trillion in 2012, a 3% increase from 2011 spending of US$3.5 trillion, according to Gartner, Inc. The outlook has been revised up slightly from the 2.5% projection last quarter.

The potential for Chinese fabless companies to reap greater rewards are already here, according to Allen Wu, president of ARM China. ARM-based SoCs, designed by Chinese fabless companies and shipped globally, jumped from 30 million units in 2007 to 615 million units in 2011.

Its semiconductor unit ATIC had an accumulated deficit of 4.1 billion dirhams (US$1.12 billion)as of the end of 2011 and made losses in the past two years, Mubadala said in the filing. "No assurance is given that ATIC will be profitable in 2012 or in subsequent years," Mubadala said.

Although only 2% growth was registered in the worldwide semiconductor market in 2011, several companies posted results that were far different, according to IC Insights.

The global semiconductor materials market increased 7% in 2011 compared to 2010, with record revenues in 2011 of US$47.86 billion.

Infineon's chief executive Peter Bauer has said the company wants to generate 50% of its total sales from Asia over the long term. Since it made over 40% of sales from Asia in fiscal 2011, it is clearly making progress on its target.

Meanwhile, the South Korean companies surpassed the Japanese companies in IC marketshare for the first time in 2011, IC Insights said in its recent report.

Dow Corning's JV polysilicon subsidiary, Hemlock Semiconductor was impacted by overcapacity in 2011.

Motorola Mobility, the phone maker Google has agreed to buy for US$12.5 billion, swung to an operating loss in the fourth quarter of 2011 due to increased competition in the smartphone market.

"We delivered a solid fourth quarter amid challenging market conditions," said company president and CEO John Kispert. "2011 was a year of transition and intense product development. Spansion is now well-positioned for growth in the future in areas such as automotive, industrial, communications and gaming..."

Leading electronic equipment manufacturers remained the center of the semiconductor world in 2011, accounting for US$105.6 billion of semiconductors on a design total available market basis - 35% of semiconductor vendors' worldwide chip revenue, according to Gartner.

Prior to joining Globalfoundries, Michael Noonen served as executive vice president, sales and marketing as a member of NXP Semiconductors' executive management team from 2008 to 2011.

It's been a long time coming, but Intel has finally entered the mobile market - in China.

After several years of rapid capacity expansion driven by high-brightness LED used in TV backlighting applications, a 40% decline in world metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) purchases in 2012 will reduce overall LED equipment spending for the first time in over five years.

Micron Technology has posted a net loss of US$187 million, or US$0.19 per diluted share, on net sales of US$2.1 billion for the company's first quarter of fiscal 2012 (ended December 1, 2011).