Company bankruptcies in Japan jumped 24.7% in December from a year earlier, as the financial crisis pummelled the world's second-largest economy.

A severe economic slowdown in China is one of the biggest risks faced by the world this year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has warned.

Yahoo announced Tuesday that it had hired veteran technology executive Carol Bartz as its new CEO. Separately, Yahoo said President Sue Decker will resign after a transitional period.

When George W Bush wanted a vice-president, he appointed Dick Cheney to head up a search team. When the team reported back, the selected candidate turned out to be…Dick Cheney. The Cadence board, having been a major contributor to Cadence’s problems through their selection of executive management and guidance given them, have also been off searching for a new CEO. And the selected candidate is…Lip-Bu Tan, member of the Cadence board.

Indian IT services provider Infosys Technologies on Tuesday reported a more than 6% increase in fiscal third-quarter profit and said it is seeing no fallout from the Satyam debacle, but warned that the pricing environment is challenging and trimmed its outlook for the full year.

Last week's tech gadget extravaganza in Sin City drew an estimated 110,000 attendees, down 22% from last year's audited total. But according to the CEA, board members reported getting more business done this year than at any prior show, which may prompt organizers to take steps to limit future attendance in order to ensure the right people attend the event.

Seagate Technology on Monday shook up its executive ranks as the No. 1 maker of computer hard-disk drives replaced Chief Executive William Watkins with the company's chairman, Stephen Luczo. The move comes less than a week after Seagate said it would cut about 10% of its US-based workforce.

Hynix Semiconductor said on Monday it believed the fourth quarter of 2008 was the bottom in the ongoing memory chip downturn, and that it was open to further financing. "Although we do not expect any rapid recovery, we are cautiously hopeful that the fourth quarter [of 2008] may have represented a bottom in the downturn," Hynix CEO Kim Jong-kap said during a news conference.

KLA-Tencor, a microchip manufacturing equipment maker, slashed its sales estimate for the fiscal second quarter, citing economic turmoil and the ongoing decline of the semiconductor industry.

German memory chip maker Qimonda AG's long-term chances of survival are limited, despite its recent bailout, as Taiwan's chip makers strengthen their alliances with peers from Japan and the US. Those alliances could leave Qimonda without a technology partner and cast it as a minor player in the industry.

Loss making NOR flash memory market leader, Spansion is facing growing concerns over its liquidity status with credit ratings specialist, Fitch Ratings, lowering its view on approximately US$1.3 billion of debt to a 'negative' outlook. Fitch noted that Spansion's total debts were US$1.6 billion.

Wipro, India's third-largest software exporter, and Megasoft Consultants, are barred from working for the World Bank, the institution said, less than three weeks after it disclosed Satyam Computer Services was banned.

The efforts announced follow cost-reduction measures ON Semi began taking in 4Q 2008, including the reduction of 2009 planned capital expenditures to $50 million to $60 million from normalized yearly levels of $130 million to $140 million, temporary site shutdowns during the quarter, a hiring freeze, the elimination of second half 2008 bonus payments, and strict controls over all discretionary spending.

ASM International (ASMI) today announced it will cut 200 jobs as it shifts some manufacturing and operational procurement activities from the Netherlands to Singapore. The changes will take place over the next 12 months and involve the transfer of the remaining manufacturing and operational procurement activities for ASMI's vertical furnace product line from Almere, the Netherlands, to the company's front-end manufacturing operations in Singapore (FEMS).

Two search requests on the internet website Google produce as much carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle, according to a Harvard University academic.

Though 2009 looks just as grim as 2008, organizers of the Consumer Electronics Show last week forecast a few rays of sunshine. The Consumer Electronics Assn. projected growth in organic LED displays, digital book readers, Blu-ray disc players and lightweight laptops called netbooks. Despite a projected 0.3% decline in overall consumer spending in 2009, the trade group said, people will continue to earmark a large chunk of their income for technology.

The plasma screen television is poised to become the next victim of the battle to curb energy use. Giant energy-guzzling flatscreens are expected to be banned under legislation due to be agreed by the EU this spring.

LG Electronics is aiming for 16% overall market share in flat panel TVs and sales of more than 21 million TVs in 2009. By category, the company plans to sell 18 million LCD TVs, giving it 15% market share, and 3 million plasma TVs, for 19% of the market.

LG Display said it had signed a deal to supply LCD panels to Apple for five years. The world's second-biggest maker of LCD screens did not disclose the total size of the deal but said in a filing to the Korea Exchange that it would receive a US$500 million advance from Apple this month.

More than half a million Americans lost their jobs in December, making 2008 the worst year for US employment since World War Two, while Europe's woes mounted as output from its factories plunged.

The Cambridge-based company was already eight years old when on Jan. 6 1999 EE Times reported ARM's own prediction that the company would have 70 percent of the market for processors in the mobile phone handset business. This was a statistic that came to define ARM's early success.

Shares in Palm surged over 36% on Friday after its new touch-screen phone and mobile operating system impressed analysts and short sellers rushed to cover their positions, giving investors hope it may win customers from rivals such as Apple.