Price declines accelerated in the latter part of the fourth quarter, CFO Judy Bruner said on a conference call. That, along with lower orders from some mobile-phone customers, will hurt sales in the first quarter, she said.

Facebook has filed for an initial public offering that could value the social network between US$75 billion and US$100 billion, putting the company on track for one of the biggest US stock-market debuts of all time.

Faraday will optimize a complete IP portfolio for UMC processes ranging from 0.11-micron to 28nm nodes to help mutual customers shorten their SoC design time-to-market for a variety of applications.

Mobile phone chip maker Qualcomm said Wednesday that its fiscal first-quarter profit rose 16% as rising global demand for smartphones boosted sales.

Fears Germany will cap or cut green energy subsidies is boosting demand for solar panels, and uncertainty about the shape of the measures could give the country's battered solar sector an advantage against Chinese rivals.

JA Solar is the first Chinese PV producer to set up a TV SD certified TMP (Testing at Manufacturers' Premises) laboratory to enable faster and more cost-effective product certifications.

DuPont and Suntech Power Holdings announced that they had entered into a strategic agreement with an overall goal of augmenting the supply of PV materials and technologies in the global solar energy market.

The last of three patents that Rambus used to win infringement lawsuits against Nvidia, Hewlett-Packard and others has been declared invalid, according to legal documents.

Toshiba and Fujitsu booked deep losses during the October-December quarter, blaming a spike in component costs caused by Thai flooding and a tough market for consumer electronics. Both companies slashed their earnings targets for the current fiscal year through March, but said they are still on track to book an annual profit.

A war is brewing between two coalitions of solar power providers-those who get materials from China and those who don't-and the outcome could have an impact on the future of American solar energy.

The US Department of Commerce said Monday that a late-2011 surge in Chinese solar-panel imports could affect the agency's pending decision on a dumping complaint filed by SolarWorld AG .

Intel has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with QLogic to acquire the product lines of and certain assets related to its InfiniBand business. A significant number of the employees associated with this business are expected to accept offers to join Intel.

Micron Technology and Virtensys have announced that the companies have signed an agreement for Micron to acquire the assets of privately held Virtensys, a provider of PCIe-sharing solutions based in Manchester, England and Beaverton, Ore.

Texas Instruments said it would close two older factories in Japan and Texas with 500 workers to cut costs. The company added it saw a broad resumption of demand in December that continued into January.

Motorola Mobility, the phone maker Google has agreed to buy for US$12.5 billion, swung to an operating loss in the fourth quarter of 2011 due to increased competition in the smartphone market.

Facebook will begin the process of becoming a publicly-listed company this week, valuing the social networking site at between US$75 billion and US$100 billion, reports suggest.

Qualcomm has acquired display startup Pixtronix, which develops technology applicable to smartphone and tablet screens.

"We delivered a solid fourth quarter amid challenging market conditions," said company president and CEO John Kispert. "2011 was a year of transition and intense product development. Spansion is now well-positioned for growth in the future in areas such as automotive, industrial, communications and gaming..."