Verigy has said that an acquisition offer from Advantest is better than an earlier deal Verigy made to buy rival LTX-Credence. Advantest is offering US$15 per share for Verigy. Based on Verigy's 60.7 million outstanding shares as of March 1, the deal is worth US$910.8 million.

Renesas's semiconductor plant in Yonezawa, Yamagata Pref., re-opened on March 19.

Xilinx has begun shipments of its 7 series FPGA, built with 28nm technology.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association has announced a broad spectrum of ongoing standards development work related to 3D-ICs.

AT&T has said it will buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $39 billion that would make it the largest cellphone company in the US. The deal would reduce the number of wireless carriers with national coverage from four to three, and is sure to face close regulatory scrutiny.

President Ma Ying-jeou and more than 300 entertainers raised NT$800 million (US$26.7 million) in a four-hour fundraiser broadcast live on local channels late Friday, said co-organiser Taiwan Red Cross. Another fundraiser co-sponsored by World Vision Taiwan also saw hundreds of local celebrities join hands to raise NT$114 million for Japan quake relief.

Emergency crews at Japan's earthquake-hit nuclear plant in Fukushima prevented the radiological crisis from spinning further out of control on Friday (Mar. 18), but their efforts appeared to be too late to prevent contamination of inhabited areas around the site.

General Motors has announced plans to temporarily idle its pick-up truck plant in Louisiana due to a parts shortage stemming from the crisis in Japan.

Earlier this week, the yen hit its highest level since World War II against the US dollar, adding to fears over Japan's recovery. The yen weakened to 81.81 against the US dollar after news of the plan.

Analysts at Barclays and UBS had speculated that shutdowns at Mitsubishi Gas would deprive some chipmakers of a chemical resin used to package their products, causing supply disruptions.

The crisis in Japan has revived anti-nuclear passions worldwide, putting governments on the defensive and undermining the nuclear power industry's recent renaissance as the clean energy of the future.

With so many fake information and inaccurate reporting on the nuclear crisis, here is a good article on what is really going on.

A report from Strategy Analytics shows that Apple dominated the smartphone revenue stakes for 2010, followed by Nokia and Research in Motion (RIM).

Health and nuclear experts emphasize that radiation in the plume will be diluted as it travels and, at worst, would have extremely minor health consequences in the United States, even if hints of it are ultimately detectable.

Rambus has renewed its patent license agreement with Toshiba. This five year agreement covers Toshiba's products with DRAM memory controllers for SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, and other DRAM devices. Rambus will receive royalty payments based on the shipment of these memory controllers.

Plans by Japan's largest electric utility to impose rolling blackouts across the earthquake-ravaged country could sharply curtail Japan's economic growth and disrupt global commerce.