S-LCD, a flat screen joint venture between Sony Corp and Samsung Electronics , said it would reduce capital by US$555 million, as Sony struggles with perennial losses from its TV business and Samsung seeks to shift to a new type of display.

Shares of NAND flash drive maker SanDisk are off by US$1.68, or 3.4%, at US$47.31 after the company reported revenue and earnings per share for 1Q slightly ahead of expectations and said Japan's disaster would not derail its earnings outlook for the year.

Video games giant Nintendo has seen its annual profits slump by 66%, hurt by a strong yen and a drop in sales.

Despite past political tensions, enterprising Taiwanese had long been doing business in China. However, it was only until after a financial memorandum of understanding was signed in 2009 that Taiwanese banks were able to follow suit.

Robert Tsao, honorary chairman of United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), said recently in a TV interview that he has given up his Taiwan citizenship. Disappointment in the domestic judicial system is the major reason why Tsao decided to become a Singaporean.

Renesas Electronics expects to restart production at a quake-hit factory in east Japan in mid June, about two weeks earlier than initially planned.

Qualcomm reported record quarterly revenues and raised its guidance for 2011 as global demand for smartphones and tablets grew. Supply-chain concerns stemming from the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan had not affected Qualcomm's ability to make chips, and it had seen very little impact on demand for its products, the company said.

Lawmakers in China are revising the income tax law to narrow the wealth gap and to encourage more domestic consumption. The amendment will raise the threshold for personal income tax from CNY2,000 to CNY3,000 a month (from US$304 to US$456).

Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest flat panel maker by revenue, said that it will invest KRW541.1 billion (US$501 million) in a joint venture in China that will develop the company's 7.5G LCD panel plant.

GDP will expand 0.8% in 2011, down sharply from the 1.7% growth previously forecast. But as reconstruction spending gains pace, the economy will expand 2.3% in 2012, faster than previous estimates for 1.3% growth, the OECD said.

Apple has agreed to add Foxconn Technology Group affiliate Chimei Innolux as its third supplier of sensors for the iPad 2's touch screen, two people familiar with the matter said. Chimei Innolux will begin supplying the components next month.

Nokia, the struggling market leader in mobile phones, has said that it intended to cut costs by nearly 20% over three years, a move that will likely eliminate thousands of jobs as it enters an alliance with Microsoft.

The driving force of Japan's economy has gone into reverse. In March exports fell 2.2% which is the first drop in almost a year and a half.

The Indian government has established a committee to identify technology and potential investors that could set up India's first two commercial semiconductor wafer fabs, the country's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said. The ministry put the rough cost of the two fabs at US$5 billion.

The event was postponed due to the ongoing recovery efforts in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake and at the request of Japanese government agencies to help conserve energy resources during the summer months. SEMICON Japan 2011 is now scheduled for December 7-9 in the same venue as PVJapan.

Smartphones and tablets will be the first devices to use ARM's upcoming Cortex-A15 processor, and will be available starting late 2012 or early 2013, said James Bruce, the US mobile segment manager at ARM.

"2011 started strong, with customer demand in January and February tracking our expectations for a first quarter of above-seasonal growth," said Rich Templeton, TI CEO. "But the Japan earthquake that's taken such a heartbreaking human toll in the country also disrupted local demand starting in mid-March and impaired operations at two of our factories there."

The company said its customers are asking for a higher number of shipments in the second half of calendar year 2011, compared with the first half. Analysts view Lam's top customer, Samsung Electronics', recent decision to cut capital spending as hurting its fourth-quarter results.

According to Samsung South Korea, the smartphone maker "will be releasing a smartphone that boasts performance levels matching desktop PCs." That's because this upcoming device will come equipped with a dual-core processor running at 2GHz.