The deal is the largest takeover yet by Qualcomm. It also comes on the heels of Intel's US$1.4 billion purchase in August of Infineon's wireless chip business, which competes with Atheros. Many industry analysts believe Qualcomm's takeover of Atheros is the first of several potential deals in the semiconductor industry this year.

Amid a slowdown in DRAM, Samsung Electronics is reducing its capital spending by 14% for 2011.

Hynix Semiconductor said in a regulatory filing on January 6 that it plans 3.4 trillion won (US$3.03 billion) in facility investment in 2011.

Ingenic-designed MIPS-based SoCs are, for example, built into Velocity Micro's Cruz Tablets. The connection represented by MIPS-Ingenic-Velocity Micro illustrates an emerging paradigm in the consumer electronics market: A China-developed processor is driving a host of new consumer devices, while a big ODM community based in greater China (i.e. Foxconn) designs and manufactures them, which are, then, promoted by US-based marketing companies like Velocity Micro, who cultivate channel connections with top retailers.

Qualcomm Inc. agreed to buy Wi-Fi chip maker Atheros Communications Inc. for US$3.1 billion in cash as it aims to address growing demand for devices that use Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet.

The latest data from Germany's solar installations database recorded 340.5 megawatts of solar installs in October, a decline of 151 MW from the September level of 492 MW.

The investors, including China Development Bank and China Construction Bank Corp., will take an 18.46 percent stake in the Chinese company's polysilicon unit.

The revenue shortfall is primarily attributable to order push-outs and cancellations from TV customers in the seasonally weak fourth quarter as well as slower than expected program ramp-up and a weaker retail segment for the company's set-top box products.

She was previously the chief operating officer of Osram Opto Semiconductor. She joined them in 2008. She also had executive positions at Altis, AMD, among others.

ON Semiconductor has announced the completion of the acquisition of Sanyo Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Sanyo Electric, and other assets related to Sanyo Electric's semiconductor business.

Intel will receive a grant from the Israeli government to build a 12-inch plant dubbed Fab 28 in Kiryat Gat. Intel promised to employ 3,100 employees at the fab and boost R&D investment.

Germany will account for a reduced 40 percent of world demand in 2011, but that will be offset by growth in the U.S., Italy, France, the Czech Republic and others countries. The global demand for the solar market should grow 20 percent next year to 17.7 gigawatts.

Companies from China are increasingly setting up shop in the U.S. to avoid trade barriers and to learn better ways to prosper in their fiercely competitive home market

A few days old, but still worth reading. Maybe the real application for solar power isn't giant farms in Germany but solar power kits to villages in India and sub-Saharan Africa.

Toshiba announced it has acquired Fujitsu's shareholding in Toshiba Storage Device and turned the JV its wholly-owned subsidiary. Toshiba and Fujitsu merged their HDD businesses in October 2009.

Analog Devices (ADI) has announced the US ITC ruled decisively in favor of the company in its lawsuit against Knowles Electronics.

This agreement covers the use of Rambus patented innovations in a broad range of logic IC products offered by Renesas Electronics.

Sony has announced plans to invest approximately 100 billion yen (US$1.2 billion) over the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, to double its production capacity for CCD and CMOS image sensors. The investment plan includes the transfer of a plant from Toshiba.

Intel was expected to be a capital spending and production partner in the Singapore fab. However, Intel "is not participating" in terms of capital spending in the Singapore fab, said Micron CEO Steve Appleton. Still, over time, analysts said that Micron will go it alone in NAND and without its partner, Intel.

Hynix has completed development of a 30nm-class DRAM chip, with volume production slated for the first quarter of 2011, according to company CEO Kwon Oh-chul.

As part of the strategy for transforming the system LSI business and securing an asset light business model, Toshiba has signed a MoU with Sony, expressing the intent to dissolve Nagasaki Semiconductor Manufacturing (NSM) and to transfer 300mm wafer fabrication lines there from Toshiba to Sony.

Elpida Memory intends to launch capital tie-up talks with Taiwan firms that are currently the world's sixth- and seventh-biggest DRAM chipmakers. Elpida president Yukio Sakamoto plans to visit Taiwan early next month (January 2011) to start the talks and hopes to reach a deal by the end of the company's fiscal year, according to sources.

Dow Chemical plans to push its game-changing "solar shingle" technology, which installs on roofs like ordinary shingles but can generate electricity from sunlight, into commercial markets in 2011, which will bring the largest U.S. chemical manufacturer into an entirely new and lucrative market.

BYD's first plug-in car, the F3DM, has arrived in California where it will be used in a pilot project by the Los Angeles Housing Authority. The F3DM has 40-60 miles of electric range and 300 miles of gasoline range, and in a unique feature, drivers can specify whether the gas engine assists the electric motor.

The six-member commission has said it will not review an October finding by ITC judge Charles Bullock that Samsung didn't violate Spansion patent rights, according to a posting on the Washington-based agency's website.

Toshiba will outsource fabrication of system chips to South Korea's Samsung Electronics, freeing up resources for its memory chip operations, the Nikkei business daily has reported.

Sony plans to buy back a Nagasaki semiconductor plant from Toshiba for about 50 billion yen (US$597.2 million) to double output capacity for image sensors used in smartphones and other devices, the Nikkei business daily reported recently.

The amount of noise coming out of Germany about proposed additional solar feed-in tariff cuts is an annual rite of passage -- and period of unrest -- for solar investors. Yet there's been a major change of tone this year in the battle of the future level of installations in the solar sector's leading market.

China is defending its subsidies for wind and solar power against a U.S. complaint to the World Trade Organization that such support is unfair, but says it will work to resolve the dispute.

Micron Technology said it expects prices for NAND to drop another 10% in the current quarter but pointed to signs of improvement as demand for the chips used in smartphones, tablets and solid-state hard drives grows.