KLA-Tencor will reduce its global workforce by a further-10% as part of an effort to reduce its quarterly operating expenses to US$140 million to US$145 million by the end of calendar year 2009, down from the previously announced target of US$165-170 million per quarter.

"We need to find a European solution, and to back it up with the EU is a challenge — it takes time and if we wait too long, some of these companies might not exist anymore," said Heinz Kundert, president of SEMI Europe. Kundert said that the full-scale rescue of Qimonda would be quite difficult. "These projects are too big to be solved by one company or a single nation."

China is working on a plan to establish a union in silicon materials industry so as to cope with the ongoing financial crisis, said Zhu Lihui, secretary general of the semi-conductor materials branch under China Electronics Materials Industry Association.

Agilent Technologies has announced a 2700 employee layoff and a major restructuring of its electronic measurement business in response to what the company described as the "most severe global downturn" in its history.

Seoul Semiconductor will supply 300 thousand pieces of LED for ‘LED Farming Demonstration Project’ of Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry of Japan. LED light source for farming is getting popular for energy saving and improvement of product quality. Competitive power of Seoul Semiconductor and possibility of its market expansion with diversified items in the Japanese market have been confirmed.

Lam Research is cutting 375 jobs or 10% of its workforce as part of a restructuring effort the company estimates will save it up to US$95 million a year.

Infineon Technologies AG HAS announced that it has signed a letter of intent for framework purchase agreement amounting US$68 million with Huawei Technologies of China. Infineon will provide semiconductor solutions for Huawei in the area of central office solutions (CO), customer premise equipment (CPE) and mobile phone platforms.

VLSI Research said ASML overtook TEL for the second spot in its annual ranking of equipment suppliers. Applied Materials remained on top, while KLA-Tencor and Lam Research were in the fourth and fifth spots. The Top 10 declined slightly faster than the total IC manufacturing equipment industry, which dwindled 25.1% to $41.8 billion.

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.

Seiko Epson will consolidate production at its unprofitable liquid-crystal-display and semiconductor units as part of a plan to focus on faster growing businesses including printers and projectors

Mario Morales, an analyst with market researcher IDC, is in the unenviable position of following one of the most bedraggled sectors in technology right now: semiconductors. "The biggest question I am getting is, when is the bottom?" Morales said last week. He doesn't see any growth coming to the semiconductor business until at least mid-2010.

Faced with a steep decline in sales, chipmaker National Semiconductor said Wednesday it will eliminate more than one-quarter of its work force, or 1,725 jobs.

DRAM manufacturers may not see the financial benefits of the expected rebound in memory device prices until the second-half of 2009, but can take comfort from the latest forecast from IC Insights that prices will rise from 1Q09 onwards, calling a bottom to the precipitous declines year-on-year, due to the massive overcapacity and now weakening demand.

If you want to feel good about the economy, do not read any of the trade publications. They're predicting a continued downward slide in every imaginable aspect of the industry except for MEMS. If you pick up anyone's iPhone nowadays you'll find perhaps 50 or more of these applications, all of which are essentially useless but kind of interesting in a very nerdy way.

ARC International, a specialty semiconductor manufacturer, said Wednesday posted a larger-than-forecast GBP7.3 million net loss for 2008, and said it remains cautious for 2009. Analysts cautioned that the company is unlikely to reach break-even this year.

Global semiconductor equipment maker Analog Devices on Wednesday reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter after a bout of cost-cutting, and forecast earnings in line with estimates for the current quarter.

Chipmaking equipment orders received by Japanese manufacturers fell to the lowest level in more than seven years in January, according to preliminary figures released by an industry group on Wednesday. The book-to-bill ratio, which stands for orders divided by billings, came to 0.55, the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan said.

The market for TFT-LCD equipment may have grown 30% in 2008, but it is expected to drop 41% in 2009, according to The Information Network.

US semiconductor maker Ramtron International has announced that it has entered into a foundry services agreement with IBM. The companies plan to install Ramtron's F-RAM semiconductor process technology in IBM's Burlington, Vermont, advanced wafer manufacturing facility.

Amkor Technology swung to a net loss of US$623 million in 4Q08, compared to a profit of US$32 million in the previous quarter. The US packaging and testing house has said its 1Q09 sales to drop 30-38% sequentially with gross margin between 5% and negative 2%. Meanwhile, Amkor estimated to see its second straight quarterly loss in 1Q09.

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."

After months of potential acquisition talks, Microchip Technology Inc Tuesday officially ended its pursuit of FPGA maker Atmel.

Applied Materials, the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductor production equipment, posted its first quarterly loss since 2003 and said it would cut back production, sending its shares sliding 3.2%.

Toshiba is planning to allow a total of about 16,700 workers to take on second jobs while they are on temporary leave due to production cuts in its struggling semiconductor and LCD divisions, company officials said Thursday.

Chip maker ON Semiconductor said Wednesday it expects first-quarter revenue in the range of US$340 million to $380 million, which is below Wall Street's expectations.

ALLVIA, the first through-silicon via (TSV) foundry, has secured US$5 million from private investors in its next round of funding to expand manufacturing facilities and to build more capacity. This brings the total funding invested in the company to US$25 million.

Unlike past US recessions, chipmakers can't count on boosting overseas sales this time because the economic slowdown has so quickly gone global. Slowing exports is a challenge for the chipmakers, which do most sales overseas. Three of the largest US chipmakers are taking different tacks to cut manufacturing costs in the face of a steep global recession.

Applied Materials lowered its earnings forecast Monday, saying it expects sales at the low end of its projected range for the first quarter as the chip-tools maker struggles through what it described as "unprecedented business conditions."

SanDisk said that it had signed a definitive agreement with Toshiba to restructure the Flash manufacturing joint ventures operating at the 300mm Fab 3 and Fab 4. The result of the agreement will be basic SanDisk's transition to fabless flash-based products manufacturing.

In a statement Wednesday, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries of the Philippines said one of the hardest hit sector is the semiconductor and electronics industry, as global demand continues to slide.

Toshiba is in talks to merge part of its chip operations with the semiconductor unit of NEC, a person with knowledge of the negotiations said, as they struggle with slumping demand and prices.

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.

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 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.

ASM International (ASMI) today announced it will cut 200 jobs as it shifts some manufacturing and operational procurement activities from the Netherlands to Singapore. The changes will take place over the next 12 months and involve the transfer of the remaining manufacturing and operational procurement activities for ASMI's vertical furnace product line from Almere, the Netherlands, to the company's front-end manufacturing operations in Singapore (FEMS).

The Cambridge-based company was already eight years old when on Jan. 6 1999 EE Times reported ARM's own prediction that the company would have 70 percent of the market for processors in the mobile phone handset business. This was a statistic that came to define ARM's early success.