As tech giants IBM, Yahoo, Apple and Microsoft report earnings this week, analysts say they expect headwinds and will look for how the companies plan to grow when the economy recovers.

UK government funding is needed as the credit crunch threatens a generation of small high-tech companies, a business investment group has warned. The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts said the UK could lose its global standing in areas such as healthcare and biotechnology.

TSMC's board of directors recently approved four candidates for Independent Director, including three current directors Peter Leahy Bonfield, Stan Shih and Carly Fiorina, as well as former Texas Instruments (TI) chairman Thomas J. Engibous. These four candidates for Independent Director will stand for election at TSMC's Annual General Meeting on June 10, 2009.

US consumers have more confidence in the US economy than they have had since the sudden collapse of Lehman Brothers in September, which caused the near-implosion of the global banking system, a survey showed on Friday.

Memory IP specialist Mosaid Technologies and NXP Semiconductors BV have extended their patent license deal. However, troubled and insolvent memory maker Qimonda has terminated the six-year patent licensing agreement between the two companies that came into effect July 1, 2006.

German chipmaker Infineon is in negotiations with the government over state guarantees worth several hundred million euros (dollars), the Welt am Sonntag paper reported Sunday.

Shares of Toshiba opened down 6.9% on Monday after weekend reports that it plans to raise about US$5 billion in capital to bolster its finances, weakened by its loss-making chip operations and tax costs.

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba has said it is to cut a further 3,900 temporary jobs by March 2010 to cope with the global economic downturn. The news came as it said it expected to report a net loss of 350bn yen (US$3.5bn) for the year to March 2009.