The succession of Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs to the post of chairman, replacing Irwin Jacobs, garnered headlines on March 3. Not so widely reported was the younger Jacobs' plan to take a 25% reduction in salary for fiscal 2009.

Samsung expects solid-state drives to reach price parity with hard-disk drives within the next few years amid steep annual price declines in flash memory chips.

China's demand for polysilicon will make up less than 45% of its annual production capacity in 2009 due to fast capacity expansion and lowering demand, according to a report by CLSA Limited.

IC Insights reported that chip average selling prices (ASPs) increased 4% in January over the previous month, with NAND ASPs jumping 17% and MPUs also showing strong pricing. If traditional patterns hold true, the current downturn will be followed by strong growth in 2010 and 2011, IC Insights President Bill McClean told an IMAPS Global Business Council meeting in Arizona.

"We are considering a number of choices best for our firm, but are putting top priority on a technological alliance with Taiwan Memory," Elpida said in a statement.

Deposition equipment maker Aixtron AG of Aachen, Germany has reported revenue of ？274.4m for full-year 2008, up 28% on 2007’s ？214.8m (and the third consecutive year of growth).

G Electronics, the local arm of the world's biggest IT&C and electronics supplier, recorded a 20 percent increase in turnover last year, to 152 million U.S. dollars, on important sales on all the company's main sectors, NewsIn informs.

LG beat Samsung in the final rankings to emerge as the channel champion in the LCD category. LG did better than Samsung in four out of the five parameters— price-performance, marketing and branding, service and support, and channel relationships.

Samsung said statistics showed that it had achieved top revenue in the UAE with a 27 per cent market share.

Here's one group you won't hear complaining too bitterly about government spending: Tech executives. While they're careful to avoid promoting any particular political ideology, there's a common refrain among them that with the economy in such rough shape and with customers afraid to spend, it's only natural for governments to step up.

The financial crisis is taking its toll on the world's richest people, wiping 332 names off Forbes magazine's "rich list" of world billionaires.