Infineon Technologies has said revenues will grow by a better-than-expected "high single digit" in the quarter ending December 31, 2009 on improved sales in the automotive and industrial units.

China's growth may surge to as much as 12% in 2010, thanks to a rebound in exports and domestic spending.

Micron Technology swung to a fiscal first-quarter profit—its first in three years—on higher sales volumes and prices as well as a large prior-year write-down.

Micron said that it will be ''shortly'' sampling a 2x-nm NAND device. It did not specify the exact node, but some expect the company will disclose more details in early 2010.

Hynix Semiconductor expects to be profitable in 2010 after posting huge losses in the early part of this year, in an indication that an industry downturn is ending and memory-chip business is poised for a recovery.

The analyst said that recent checks lead her to believe there will be a "significantly better than expected" demand for PCs in the beginning of the year -- something she expects will help balance out supply and demand for DRAM.

Toshiba may invest 200 billion yen (US$2.2 billion) to expand production of NAND flash memory by about 40% in April 2010, the Nikkan Kogyo newspaper reported without citing anyone.

A strong earthquake has struck parts of Taiwan, rattling buildings in the capital, Taipei, although there are no initial reports of serious casualties.

Korea Exchange Bank said on December 20 that the creditors of Hynix Semiconductor will send out invitations to Korean companies Monday (Dec. 21) to seek bids for their combined 28% stake in the chip maker.

Japanese exports in November 2009 fell at the slowest pace in more than a year on strong Asian demand, easing concern about the strength of the country's economic recovery.

An administrative law judge at the US International Trade Commission ruled that Samsung has infringed two camera patents developed by Kodak.

Mixed-signal foundry LFoundry (Landshut, Germany) plans to acquire Atmel's fab in Rousset, France, the site of recent worker unrest. CEO Michael Lehnert said the proposed acquisition will make LFoundry the largest analog foundry in Europe.

Nokia and ST-Ericsson have announced a long-term partnership in the area of TD-SCDMA technology and ICs. As part of the partnership, Nokia will use ST-Ericsson as a supplier of chipsets for its Symbian-based TD-SCDMA portfolio.

Thin-film integrated passive devices (IPDs) have the potential to extend wafer-level packaging and through-silicon via (TSV) technology to many IC package solutions and the discrete passive component industry. This market could expand from US$600 million this year to reach beyond US$1 billion by 2013.

Palm trimmed its net loss and said it had shipped a total of 783,000 smartphones to retailers in its fiscal second quarter, which ended Nov. 27. That was up 41% compared with the second quarter last year, but down 5% compared with the first quarter.

Micron Technology has announced that it will voluntarily transfer its stock exchange listing from The New York Stock Exchange to the NASDAQ Global Select Market effective Dec. 30, 2009.

To be fair, 2009 was a year that defied prediction. Who would have thought the stock market would drop like a stone until early March and then abruptly rise like a rocket?

Shares of LDK Solar plunged further on December 18 as the Chinese solar panel maker priced at a deep discount an equity offering that it said is part of the capital raise it needs to continue operating.

Singapore regulators have approved a takeover offer by Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), which made a bid for Chartered in September.