Sumco, the world's second-largest maker of silicon wafers, lowered its full-year profit forecast 44%, citing a slump in demand amid a global recession. "While market visibility in December and January is best described as fumbling in complete darkness, we expect the conditions to bottom out in February to March," said company president Kenjiro Shigematsu.

Taiwan stocks reversed course to inch up 0.13% on Wednesday, the last trading day before the Lunar New Year holidays, with DRAM makers rallying amid growing investor expectations for a long-awaited industry restructuring.

In an effort to revive sagging momentum in key markets, Samsung Electronics decided to replace all eight heads of its overseas units, Wednesday. The sweeping reshuffle is part of the company's efforts to slim down its business structure for bigger profits and greater efficiency, a Samsung Group spokesman said in a briefing at its headquarters in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul.

More than 90 jobs are being shed in Boise because of production slowdowns at Micron Technology.

Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) cut its fiscal first-quarter guidance because of weak demand from consumers and customers' cuts in their inventories.

Intel said on Wednesday it would close manufacturing plants in Malaysia and the Philippines and scale back US operations as part of a restructuring that affects as many as 6,000 employees.

Singapore's economy may shrink a record 5% this year as exports slump, increasing pressure on the government to take steps to help businesses and consumers. The export-dependent nation has been battered by declining orders for electronics goods and pharmaceuticals from its biggest customers in the US and Europe, as well as emerging markets.

Flextronics, a contract manufacturer that supplies about 75% of Nortel's finished product around the world, warned last week it is working to reduce its exposure to the Toronto-based company after Nortel filed for court protection from creditors.

In his usual no-nonsense manner, CEO TJ Rodgers described how he is navigating Cypress Semiconductor through bad economic conditions, and denied that the solar industry is losing competiveness as oil prices decline.

Infineon Technologies (Kulim) Sdn Bhd, Germany-based Infineon's front-end wafer fabrication plant at the Kulim Hi-Tech Park, will not retrench any of its 1,000 workers despite of the global economic downturn.

Cymer. which makes lasers used in semiconductor manufacturing, is cutting 10% of its work force and slashing pay and benefits as sharply lower demand cuts into revenue, the company said late Thursday.

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest mobile phone maker, said on Thursday it would pay US$400 million in royalties for patents held by wireless technology firm InterDigital.

Samsung Electronics on Friday streamlined its businesses into two major groups, joining its chip and LCD units and combining its telecom and media divisions.

ASML Holding NV, a key equipment supplier to Intel and other chip makers, swung to a fourth-quarter net loss, hurt by a slumping semiconductor market as customers struggled to get credit.

Spansion, the NOR flash manufacturer which bought Israel NROM company Saifun last year, has hired Barclay's Capital to investigate ways of selling itself to another company, or entering a partnership with another company.

ON Semiconductor has introduced the industry's first 4-amp supercapacitor LED flash driver for high-megapixel camera phones and standalone camera applications.

EV Group (EVG) and Brewer Science have announced the installation of an EVG 500 series wafer-bonding system at Brewer Science's Taiwan applications lab. Located in Hsinchu Science Park, this joint effort offers customers localized support in the Asia-Pacific region for 3D IC and other advanced process development programs.

Freescale Semiconductor reacted to weakening business conditions Tuesday with a series of austerity moves to cut spending. The Austin-based chipmaker said it will temporarily freeze all salaries and promotions, require executives to take pay cuts and force all workers to take five unpaid days off in the first quarter.

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba has confirmed it is in talks to buy Fujitsu's hard disk drive (HDD) arm. The Nikkei business daily said any deal between Fujitsu and Toshiba would be worth 30bn-40bn yen ($340m-$450m; £233m-£308m).

FormFactor, which specializes in wafer probe cards, has announced a global reorganization and cost reduction plan. As part of the plan the company will reduce its workforce by 22%.

The creditors of Hynix Semiconductor yesterday said they aimed to sell their 36% controlling stake in the world's second-largest maker of memory chips by the end of September.

When George W Bush wanted a vice-president, he appointed Dick Cheney to head up a search team. When the team reported back, the selected candidate turned out to be…Dick Cheney. The Cadence board, having been a major contributor to Cadence’s problems through their selection of executive management and guidance given them, have also been off searching for a new CEO. And the selected candidate is…Lip-Bu Tan, member of the Cadence board.

Last week's tech gadget extravaganza in Sin City drew an estimated 110,000 attendees, down 22% from last year's audited total. But according to the CEA, board members reported getting more business done this year than at any prior show, which may prompt organizers to take steps to limit future attendance in order to ensure the right people attend the event.

Seagate Technology on Monday shook up its executive ranks as the No. 1 maker of computer hard-disk drives replaced Chief Executive William Watkins with the company's chairman, Stephen Luczo. The move comes less than a week after Seagate said it would cut about 10% of its US-based workforce.

Hynix Semiconductor said on Monday it believed the fourth quarter of 2008 was the bottom in the ongoing memory chip downturn, and that it was open to further financing. "Although we do not expect any rapid recovery, we are cautiously hopeful that the fourth quarter [of 2008] may have represented a bottom in the downturn," Hynix CEO Kim Jong-kap said during a news conference.

KLA-Tencor, a microchip manufacturing equipment maker, slashed its sales estimate for the fiscal second quarter, citing economic turmoil and the ongoing decline of the semiconductor industry.