Elpida's loss widened to an estimated 160 billion yen (US$1.59 billion) from 23.5 billion yen in the previous financial year, the Nikkei said, without citing anyone.

Japan's second lost decade holds worrying lessons for other rich economies. Its large fiscal stimulus succeeded in preventing a depression in the 1990s after its bubble burst—and others are surely correct to follow today. But Japan's failure to spur a strong domestic recovery a decade later suggests that America and Europe may also have a long, hard journey ahead.

...In the long run, they say, there will be only three viable entities, at least at the leading edge of chipmaking: Samsung in memory chips, Intel in microprocessors and TSMC in foundries. The rest will be "nationalistic" ventures in need of regular government bail-outs.

Powerchip Semiconductor Corp., Taiwan's biggest memory-chip maker, is seeking to revise terms on US$157.9 million of debt a week after smaller rival ProMOS Technologies won acceptance to buy back debt at a discount.

"We're interested in finding somthing that really makes sense for us," said Micron Technology CEO Steve Appleton, who sees no compelling reason to join in the Taiwanese government's plan to aid its struggling memory chip industry.

Spurred by growing environmental movement and the implementation of new EPA EnergyStar 3.0 power-consumption regulations, television manufacturers have rallied to the cause this year with new power-efficient TV designs.

Taiwan Memory Co., keen on securing technology from foreign chip makers, is looking to forge an alliance with Micron Technology on top of a partnership announced Wednesday with Elpida Memory, but a three-way tie-up may be complicated and won't provide meaningful benefits, say analysts.

BP on Wednesday said it would cut 620 jobs from its solar power business and that two plants in Spain and part of a plant in the US would be shut as it looks to reduce costs at its renewable energy division.

One of the company's newest phones uses the same technology found in cutting-edge TVs to deliver incomparable color.

Congressional Democrats overwhelmingly embraced President Obama's ambitious and expensive agenda for the nation yesterday (April 2), endorsing a US$3.5 trillion spending plan that sets the stage for the president to pursue his most far-reaching priorities.

Eizo Nanao will release on July 1, 2009, the "RadiForce LS560W," an LCD monitor that has a 56-inch screen with a resolution of 3,840x2,160 pixels and is intended for use in operating rooms.

The nation's largest developer of renewable energy has planned to unveil a green power purchase program that could shake up the market by channeling all of the money into new wind and solar projects.

Elpida Memory said Thursday it is considering offering an approximately 10% stake in the company to Taiwan Memory Co., the memory-chip firm being created by the Taiwanese government. The Japanese DRAM chipmaker hasn't decided on the amount of the stake in monetary terms, the timing or how it would be offered.

UL becomes first nationally recognized testing laboratory to provide Energy Star eesting of LED products for North America.