Acer will expand into televisions and electronic books within five years as the PC industry slows, founder Stan Shih has said.

As part of the recent Microhoo deal, Microsoft will hire 400 Yahoo employees and pay the Web giant $50 million annually for three years. Also, If Microsoft cannot deliver to a certain percentage of Google's success, Yahoo can back out of the deal.

Seagate Technology said it will close its Singapore hard-disk-drive manufacturing plant by the end of 2010 and lay off 2,000 workers as a result.

Time Warner Cable will begin reselling WiMAX mobile broadband from Clearwire in four US markets, including Dallas and Charlotte, North Carolina, by the end of 2009.

Hitachi has reported a quarterly loss amid continued weakness in consumer demand for electronic products. Meanwhile, camera and office equipment maker Canon saw second-quarter net profits fall 85% on year, as firms cut back on printers and copiers.

Yahoo and Microsoft have announced a long-rumoured internet search deal that will help the two companies take on chief rival Google.

Globalfoundries plans to introduce embedded silicon carbon (eSiC) to strain the nFET transistors at the 22 nm node, said John Pellerin, director of technology development.