Micron Technology's decision to cut as many as 2,000 jobs and scale back memory chip production is a "prudent" move, a Deutsche Bank analyst said.

Micron Technology will cut 2,000 jobs as it phases out 200- millimeter DRAM chip manufacturing operations in Boise, Idaho, by the end of its fiscal year in August. These layoffs are in addition to a 15% reduction, affecting about 2,850 employees, announced last fall as the company stopped production of some NAND flash-memory chips.

Qimonda's works council urged German Chancellor Angela Merkel to help save the insolvent memory chipmaker. "Act now, dear Mrs Chancellor, so that technological dominance in semiconductors in Germany and Europe will not be lost."

Samsung Electronics, the world's top maker of memory chips and flat screens, is planning to reduce its capital expenditure by 35% in 2009, the Korea Economic Daily has reported.

Infineon Technologies AG, Europe's second-largest chipmaker, would consider merging with another company although a partner may be hard to find because of the economic crisis, CEO Peter Bauer said.

Elpida Memory will raise about 40 billion yen ($435 million) to 45 billion yen from partners, the Nikkei reported, citing President Yukio Sakamoto.

Infineon Technologies AG CEO Peter Bauer said he will take a 20% pay cut in 2009 as Europe's second-largest maker of semiconductors faces a "difficult year" filled with "many tough challenges."

German technology company Infineon Technologies AG has said it would expand a Hungarian production facility which makes components for solar and wind power systems, as a result of strong demand for the products.

SanDisk is disclosing at a San Francisco technology conference Tuesday that it will begin mass production of memory chips that will allow consumers to store up to 64GB of data on tiny flash cards. The company's X4 technology will pack four bits of data into each memory cell. To date, flash memory chipmakers typically stored one bit or two bits per cell.

Qimonda AG, the German chipmaker that has filed for insolvency protection, has begun reducing production at its plant in Dresden to about one quarter of capacity, cutting the amount of silicon wafers it processes.

Toshiba has developed a higher capacity version of its FeRAM (Ferroelectric RAM) memory that can send and receive data at eight times the speed of its previously detailed prototype.

Recent production adjustments for NAND flash memory won't bring the desired effect of stabilizing and increasing prices, a research report published by Baird suggests. Manufacturers will have to brace for further production cuts and price declines in the second quarter, while consumers should benefit from this scenario through cheaper flash memory devices, especially in SSDs.

German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG reported Friday a ？404 million ($513 million) net loss for its fiscal first quarter as the global economic slowdown crimped demand and caused sales to fall.

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday said it plans to start selling by the end of 2009 a DRAM chip built with its new 40-nanometer technology, which is expected to use significantly less power than the current generation of memory chips used in PCs.

The Japanese chip maker Elpida Memory said Wednesday that it may seek government funds under a new program intended to support nonfinancial firms hit by the economic crisis.

European Union Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen sees no chance to save Germany's insolvent chip maker Qimonda with the tools available to the EU, he said in a newspaper interview on Tuesday. 'Nobody can save a company whose owner does not want to save it.'

Micron Technology and Mosaid Technologies said Monday that they have settled all pending litigation between them.

The collapse of German chip-maker Qimonda into insolvency sparked worries over its parent company Infineon. Qimonda has more than 12,000 workers worldwide, with some 3,500 in Saxony, 1,500 in Munich and several thousand in Portugal. Its New York-listed shares have fallen 95.0% over the past year, while Infineon's Frankfurt shares have fallen 88.2%.

Battered Asian memory chip makers will get some respite from oversupply in the long term after German chipmaker Qimonda filed for insolvency but the industry's recovery depends on a pick-up in demand.

The bailout of financially troubled German memory chip maker Qimonda AG could be at risk as the company has an additional financing gap due to detoriating memory chip prices, people familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday. The financing gap is around EUR300 million, these people said. One of them said additional financing needs may rise by the end of current calendar year.

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.

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.

Loss making NOR flash memory market leader, Spansion is facing growing concerns over its liquidity status with credit ratings specialist, Fitch Ratings, lowering its view on approximately US$1.3 billion of debt to a 'negative' outlook. Fitch noted that Spansion's total debts were US$1.6 billion.

Elpida Memory announced that it has completed the early redemption of the outstanding unsecured convertible bonds (CBs) worth 44 billion yen (US$1.33 billion).

Silicon foundry giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is mulling plans to buy ProMOS, according to sources. In the plan, TSMC would buy ProMOS' fabs and would shed the company's memory business, sources said.

Hynix Semiconductor, the world's No. 2 maker of computer memory chips, is set to raise $249 million in a new share issue this month under a shareholder-led support package, an executive said on Tuesday.

Spansion, the Sunnyvale flash-memory maker, chose to borrow US$74.8 million of the US$85 million available to it under an agreement with UBS, the Swiss investment banker that holds auction-rate securities that were worth US$121.9 million when Spansion first bought them. The investment has a current estimated market value of US$107.4 million, according to a filing Spansion made Monday.

Taipei-based DRAMeXchange has lowered its outlook for 2009 NAND Flash bit growth from 108.2% to 81%. The market intelligence company cites weakened demand for flash memory as the source, stemming from a decrease in forecast demand for flash memory-based consumer devices in 2009.

Shares of chip makers and companies serving the sector suffered during the year. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Sector index, which is comprised of chip companies as well as manufacturers of chip-making equipment, fell by nearly half in 2008. The index closed Tuesday's trading session at 211.26, compared with 408.04 at the end of 2007.

Computer-chip manufacturer Qimonda Ag said it is taking steps to meet the New York Stock Exchange's market-capitalization standard and increase the price of its American depositary shares to above US$1 to remain listed on the bourse. Qimonda's US-listed shares lost 2.6% in after-hours trading.

Samsung Electronics plans to slash its investment in semiconductor chips by more than 50% this year. The world's biggest computer chip maker is considering reducing its investment in semiconductor chips to two-three trillion won, sources told The Korea Times. Samsung invested 6.2 trillion won in chips in 2008, down from its earlier plan of seven trillion won.

Wachovia Capital Markets analyst David Wong said Micron should take action to raise cash over the next two to three quarters. The Boise, Idaho, maker of semiconductor devices had US$1.03 billion in cash and short-term investments and US$2.9 billion in debt at the end of its fiscal 2009 first quarter, ended Dec. 4, according to Wong.

Shares of Micron Technology are on the move today, rising 25%, on word rival Hynix Semiconductor will cut memory chip production by 20%-30% at the end of this month due to weak prices and demand.

"The bottom is yet to come," said Jae H. Lee, an analyst at Daiwa Securities. "Oversupply is a given fact until next year and chip companies will have to cut down capacity." "We currently see no reason to be invested in the memory sector," said Robert Lea, an analyst with UBS. "We believe the industry recovery has been pushed out to 2010."

Spansion said in a statement that the decision is consistent with other chip manufacturers in the industry that are also suffering from decreased demand for flash memory.