An employee at a factory that makes iPhones in China killed himself after a prototype went missing. Apple Inc. offered its condolences Wednesday as the company waits for the results of an investigation.

Hard drive maker Seagate Technology raised its forecasts for margins and overall industry sales in the current quarter, citing a larger-than-expected increase in corporate demand for computers, and its shares rose 4%.

Users can now personalize Yahoo.com to check other sites, including Facebook and Gmail, as well as add Web widgets that link to more than 65 other sites.

NEC is considering raising funds to strengthen its capital base, which has suffered during the economic downturn, according to sources familiar with matter.

Chip equipment maker ASM International (ASMI) has announced that it is accelerating its cost reduction and restructuring of worldwide front-end operations.

Barnes & Noble, the largest bookstore chain by revenue, just became the latest company to launch its own eBook store to compete with Amazon and its increasingly popular Kindle family of electronic readers. It joins Sony and other companies that aim to capture a piece of this young, but fast-growing market.

In George Orwell's "1984," government censors erase all traces of news articles embarrassing to Big Brother by sending them down an incineration chute called the "memory hole." On Friday, it was "1984”and another Orwell book, "Animal Farm," that were dropped down the memory hole — by Amazon.com.

Bargaining is much more than a team sport in China -- it's also a way of life that has been ingrained in the psyche of Chinese society for centuries.

The giant South Korean company Samsung Electronics has said it will invest more than US$4 billion to cut emissions from its plants.