South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor said on Thursday it would sell part of its stake in a Chinese joint venture plant to partner Numonyx for US$100 million by the end of this year. World No.2 memory chip maker Hynix said in a filing with the Korea Exchange its stake in the Wuxi plant will fall to 76.7% from the current 83.3% after the transaction.

The SlotMusic cards, about the size of a fingernail, will feature music by artists from EMI Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, the companies said in a statement Monday. Listeners can insert them into portable devices or copy the music onto a personal computer. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

...technology outlays will sink 20 percent to $17.6 billion next year from an estimated $21.9 billion in 2008, said Larry Tabb, founder of Tabb Group in New York, which tracks securities firm budgets. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s bankruptcy and Bank of America Corp.'s purchase of Merrill Lynch mark the beginning of stark spending cuts amid plans for a US$700 billion government bailout for Wall Street. More than 20% of global technology spending comes from the finance industry, said researcher Gartner...

LED luminaire makers that buy all their key components from Osram will now avoid payment of licensing fees under Philips' patent licensing program.

NXP BV's announced restructuring plan has left analysts pondering the company's future and dusting off age-old European chip company merger ideas. The plan is expected to cost about $800 million but it is hoped it will save US$550 million annually

Solar companies' success in ramping up new production lines and factories could leave the fast-growing renewable energy market awash in solar panels next year, driving down prices and profit margins in the nascent industry. The recent move by this year's hottest solar market, Spain, to cut its cap on subsidies for new solar panels has sparked fears that big producers may see their selling prices drop by as much as 20% as they scramble to sell out their production.

Solar power, with its promise of emissions-free renewable energy, boasts a growing number of fans. Some of them, it turns out, are thieves. Just ask Glenda Hoffman, whose fury has not abated since 16 solar panels vanished from her roof in this sun-baked town in three separate burglaries in May, sometimes as she slept. She is ready if the criminals turn up again. “I have a shotgun right next to the bed and a .22 under my pillow,” Ms. Hoffman said.

Last year, US technology exports fell for the first time in five years amid lower demand from some of the biggest importers, according to the AeA, a tech industry trade group formerly called the American Electronics Assn.

The WTO will examine whether Japan is complying with a ruling against its punitive import charge on South Korean computer chips. The WTO has twice ruled against a 27.2% charge Tokyo levies on dynamic random access memory made by South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor. Earlier this year, the WTO gave Japan until Sep 1 to bring the tariff in line with international trade rules. A third ruling against Japan in the dispute could lead to South Korean trade retaliation against Japanese goods or services.

...The debate boils down to how much speed you need," Crump said. DRAM storage is faster, but that's at a cost that's much higher than Flash-based storage. For example, 2TB of Flash-based storage costs about US$180,000, compared to about US$1 million for the same amount of DRAM-based storage. "DRAM is faster, but if flash does it for you, why spend the extra money?" he asked. In that case, it depends on the needs of the business, he said...