According to Gartner Inc analysis, both memory segments showed some pricing gains in the business week ending April 10.

Qimonda AG's Portuguese unit said it's reducing its workforce to 1,000 and suspending the contracts of 800 of the remaining employees for six months.

Oil slipped under US$50 a barrel on Tuesday on forecasts for softer 2009 global petroleum demand and for a weekly build in US crude supplies.

Microsoft has confirmed that the licence conditions under which the software will be sold will allow people to downgrade.

Dell is in talks with China Mobile to offer a smartphone based on the carrier's mobile operating system, a move that would take Dell into a huge but competitive market in China, an analyst said Monday.

Sony who is desperate to cut their massive losses has commenced talks with arch rival LG to make LCD panels for their Bravia LCD TV range, the talks come a month after the Company signed a deal with Sharp to make large screen Bravia panels.

"Samsung Electronics was asked to supply 50 million 8Gb NAND flash chips to Apple, while Hynix was set to supply 20 million," a high-ranking industry source told The Korea Times by Monday.

According to IC Insights' update to its 2009 forecast, released Thursday, the "perfect storm" of negative factors that have damaged business in the first half of 2009 will bring about a much more "friendly" environment for the IC industry in the second half of the year.

China's exports increased last month, but still were down 17% year-on-year, according to figures released by the Chinese government. Imports to China dropped 25% on year to US$72 billion.

Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso announced a historic US$150 billion stimulus package Friday aimed to turn around the recession in the world's second-largest economy.

China has unveiled plans to establish a US$10 billion investment fund for south-east Asian countries. It also offered credit of US$15 billion to the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) which comprises of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.