The proximate source of a lot of this pressure is China, say SouthBay Economics' Andrew Zatlin. Semiconductors are suffering a fallout stemming from China's slowing economy just like other commodities have.

Chip makers are feeling pressures to find new sales, including by merging with rivals, amid declines in some businesses such as personal computers and rising expectations for margin growth.

Demand for semiconductors continued to weaken in the second quarter with some PC assemblers in Asia suggesting a decline in purchases of some parts of as much as 15-20% from the second quarter of 2014, according to a report from Wall Street analysts at Deutsche Bank.

Integrated Silicon Solution (ISSI) has finalized a definitive agreement to be acquired by Cypress Semiconductor for US$20.25 per share in cash, according to the fabless memory supplier.

Cypress Semiconductor's latest acquisition ambitions have been stopped due to anti-trust concerns.

Synopsys has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Atrenta, a privately held provider of SoC realization solutions for the semiconductor and consumer electronics industries.

MagnaChip Semiconductor now offers a new 0.18-micron Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) 100V high voltage process. This new process features operability up to 100V for various applications that include DC-DC converters, Power-over-Ethernet, LED drivers, motor drivers, audio amps and PMICs.

The recent earnings season turned out to be largely good news for the companies that make semiconductor manufacturing gear. But investors haven't quite come around yet.

The world's most expensive semiconductor fabrication plant - at over US$14 billion - was announced at the ground breaking ceremony Thursday (May 7) by Samsung. Located in the Godeok Industrial Complex at Pyeongtaek City Gyeonggi-do Province - called "Samsung Semiconductor Valley" - in South Korea, Samsung will be building 10-nanometer FinFET semiconductors there.

Intel will adopt quantum well FETs (QWFETs) at the 10nm node (most likely), which will probably go into production in late 2015 or early 2016 (alternatively at 7nm in 2017 or 2018).

Booming sales and manufacturing of smartphones in China by upstart brands such as Xiaomi have helped to make the country's electronics industry one of the world's largest.

Intel is in advanced talks to buy chip partner Altera, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that would represent the semiconductor giant's biggest-ever acquisition.

RBC Capital Markets chip analyst Doug Freedman this morning writes that chip maker Nvidia, which makes no parts itself, appears to have moved some of its orders for making its chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) to Samsung Electronics, and that this may presage giving some foundry business to Intel.

The merged entity will become the market leader in auto semiconductor solutions and the market leader in general purpose MCU products, according to the companies.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) of China is seeking to take over Dongbu HiTek, industry sources said Monday.

Freescale Semiconductor, the $11 billion tech company spun out of Motorola in 2004, is in sale talks.

Samsung has announced the first full-year revenue decline at its mobile division since 2006 - a 21% fall - analysts barely mentioned that business. They focused instead on the semiconductor arm.

Regarding the occupational disease controversy over workers at its semiconductor plants, Samsung Electronics has announced that it will extend its scope of compensation to include its workers who developed any blood-related cancers, including leukemia, and all former workers who left the company a decade ago.

Global Unichip and Credo Semiconductor have announced they are collaborating to enable the development of high-performance networking solutions that will be manufactured using TSMC's 16-nm FinFET+ process technology.

Globalfoundries is keen to expand its presence in China's lucrative semiconductor market and hoping its recent buyout of IBM's chipmaking business will help lead the way.

Samsung Electronics plans to invest KRW13.5 trillion (US$12 billion) in semiconductor facilities next year, up from the KRW13 trillion spent in 2014.

Chinese companies spent almost US$5 billion in five major chip-related takeovers in the past 18 months, data compiled by Bloomberg show, with most deals getting state funding.

Qualcomm and its subsidiaries have committed to invest an aggregate of US$40M into four Chinese companies and the China Walden Venture Investments, L.P. fund, which is primarily focused on investing in semiconductor or semiconductor-related companies with business in China.

US ceramics manufacturing group CoorsTek is buying Japanese semiconductor-materials maker Covalent Materials from Carlyle and a local buyout fund, ending a rocky lossmaking investment spanning eight years.

Samsung Electronics' semiconductor sales are expected to jump 15.6% on year in 2014, closing the gap with industry leader Intel, a global market tracker said Sunday.

RF Micro Devices (RFMD) and TriQuint Semiconductor have set Wednesday, December 31, 2014, as the anticipated closing date for the transaction.

Qualcomm, which uses processor technology licensed from ARM, follows a handful of other ARM chip suppliers that are trying to offer server chips.

Fairchild has announced management changes that streamline the company's reporting structure.

Trade negotiators from China and the US have reached a preliminary deal they say could end tariffs on as much as a trillion dollars in annual global sales of high-tech goods, eliminating tariffs as high as 25% on some next-generation semiconductors. The deal requires approval of the World Trade Organization, which could take up the issue as early as December.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich expects new semiconductor partners in China to migrate to the US chipmaker's architecture within a few years and give up on ARM technology more widely used in smartphones and tablets.

Globalfoundries has announced a partnership with Invecas, a newly formed design services provider focused on accelerating customer introduction of new products on leading-edge semiconductor process technologies.

Microchip Technology missed revenue targets for its second fiscal quarter ending September 30 and said the next quarter will see single-digit declines.

SiTime, a MEMS and analog semiconductor company, has signed a definitive agreement under which MegaChips, a top 25 fabless semiconductor company based in Japan, will acquire SiTime for US$200 million in cash.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's biggest contract chipmaker, is expected to expand its global market share to more than 50 percent this year and to 60 percent in the next few years, benefiting primarily from its leadership position in advanced technologies, Credit Suisse AG said yesterday.

Taiwan's semiconductor pioneer Morris Chang on Thursday said the protracted protest against the trade pact with Beijing is casting a gloom over the nation's future, calling for a rational and peaceful solution.

STMicroelectronics and rivals such as NXP Semiconductor and Qualcomm are battling to be picked to provide the brains for the various products in the hot segment.

GCT Semiconductor has licensed the Cadence Tensilica ConnX BBE16 digital signal processing (DSP) core for a next-generation chipset targeting mobile applications.

RF Micro Devices and TriQuint Semiconductor have announced a definitive merger agreement under which the companies will combine in an all-stock transaction. To reflect the nature of this transaction as a merger of equals, the new company will have a new name and shared leadership team.

South Korean multinational conglomerates Samsung and LG are considering setting up units to manufacture electronic chips in India, following the government's clearance to build two such semiconductor units.