Qualcomm is looking at South Korean wireless and healthcare technology firms for possible investment, Chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs told Reuters on Wednesday.

As world leaders assemble in London for the Group of 20 summit this week, the latest evidence of the severity of the economic crisis emerged from Asia on Wednesday (April 1).

Fairchild Semiconductor International recently announced it will close a wafer fabrication plant and eliminate some manufacturing at a second site to save up to US$25 million annually, as part of the power-chip maker's ongoing cost-reduction in response to slumping demand.

The global semiconductor industry is likely to have hit its bottom in the fourth quarter of last year, the chief executive of South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor said Thursday.

Many Asian countries are handing out cash and vouchers to get people spending again. But real economic recovery may take a lot more. One-off payments aren't about to alter lifelong saving habits. To encourage higher spending, governments really need to improve public health, education, and retirement benefits—initiatives that would take years to kick in.

A South Korean trade commission has taken what could be a first step toward regulating wireless chip vendor Qualcomm's business practices in the country.

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.

South Korea denied a report it would offer for sale stakes in chipmaker Hynix Semiconductor and 17 other companies via international auction, but confirmed plans to attract investment into state-run assets. The Asia's fourth-largest economy posted its second-biggest contraction on record in the last quarter of 2008.

Samsung Electronics announced that it has developed the first 4Gbit DDR3 DRAM chip using a 50nm lithography process. The new chip doubles the density of earlier DRAM chips, yielding modules with up to 32GB capacity.

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.

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.

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.

South Korea's exports fell by more than 15% for a second straight month in December, adding to signs the economy is headed for its first recession since 1998. President Lee Myung Bak said South Korea will run an "economy-emergency government" this year to fight the worst economic crisis since its 1997 $57 billion bailout by the IMF.

South Korea has begun full-scale commercial production of micro-electronic mechanical system (MEMS) sensors that can greatly bolster competitiveness in its information technology industry, the government said Tuesday.

Leading shareholders of Hynix Semiconductor denied on Friday market talk the firm's capital could be reduced, boosting its shares, although persisting concerns over the sector outlook limited gains.

Hynix Semiconductor has sought 1 trillion won ($691 million) in financial support from its creditors as it faces a liquidity crunch and struggles as chip prices are falling, reports say.

Semiconductor equipment companies are using memory semiconductor recession as opportunity to grow further. World economic downturn has hit both local and foreign equipment makers, so local makers believe that if the memory semiconductor market is recovered, only companies that have done their best to cut cost will take the benefit of semiconductor market recovery.

Benchmark indexes in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea all dropped by about 5% in early trading after the Dow Jones share index in New York fell to its lowest level in five years, amid fears of a protracted global recession.

...The won is the worst in performance against the dollar among the major economic powers and its stock markets are gyrating more severely than other countries. ...39 of the 92 highest-cap firms in the domestic Korea bourse, or 42.4%, have a price-to-book ratio (PBR) less than one. Posco's ratio amounts to 0.9 and Hyundai Motor's is 0.8. Those of LG Display and Samsung SDI are both 0.7. The figures are likely to be lower in consideration of Friday's market crash.

South Korea, the world's top memory chip producer, suffered a drop in semiconductor exports for a third straight month in September amid a market glut and a slow US economy, data showed Sunday. Statistics at the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, disclosed by Yonhap news agency, showed semiconductor exports plunged 9.9% year-on-year to US2.96 billion in September, a consecutive fall since July.

The WTO will examine whether Japan is complying with a ruling against its punitive import charge on South Korean computer chips. The WTO has twice ruled against a 27.2% charge Tokyo levies on dynamic random access memory made by South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor. Earlier this year, the WTO gave Japan until Sep 1 to bring the tariff in line with international trade rules. A third ruling against Japan in the dispute could lead to South Korean trade retaliation against Japanese goods or services.

...In order to beat their Korean rivals and regain past glory as global leaders in the display segment, leading Japanese display makers recently formed a united front with support from the Japanese government. Sony, Sharp, Toshiba and Panasonic joined forces in the development of technology for the mass production of larger-sized AM OLED panels over 40 inches financed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.