Cisco Systems doesn't have any layoffs planned at this point, according to chairman and chief executive John Chambers. The networking titan has previously said it would halt hiring new workers as it looks to shave its operating expenses.

Top US phone company AT&T says it will eliminate 12,000 jobs, or about 4% of its workforce, in a fresh wave of cuts to cope with an economic downturn that has exacerbated a decline in traditional phone sales.

Goldman Sachs Group said Thursday it rejected a new offer from Panasonic for its near-30% stake in Sanyo Electric, as the first major attempt at consolidation in Japan's crowded consumer electronics sector turns increasingly sour.

Amazon.com has launched on the Apple App Store an iPhone application that makes it possible to take a picture of a product and then send it to the online retailer, which will try to match it with products in its inventory.

Adobe, one of the largest US software companies, on Wednesday provided the latest indication of how the economic crisis is rolling through the technology industry as it slashed its revenue projections and announced that it had already “taken steps” to cut its workforce by 8%, or 600 people.

Including Qimonda, Infineon posted a net loss of ？763 million for the period ending Sept. 30 compared with a net loss of ？280 million a year earlier and a net loss of ？592 million in the previous quarter.

NewSight Corp of the US developed a 3D display using LEDs as pixels for the first time in the world.

"The sector is in a dire situation," said Toshiba Senior Executive Vice President Masashi Muromachi. "Sales prices tumbled 40 percent or so in the first half and they are falling faster than expected in the second half." Muromachi also said that World Semiconductor Trade Statistics's revised forecast for 6.5% growth in global sales of semiconductors in 2010 was still high.

AMD spinnoff, The Foundry Company. has been given the green light by New York state's economic development arm, which has approved US$1.2 billion in state incentives for the firm's new chip fab.

Plummeting demand for computer chips is affecting IT centers around the globe. The eastern German state of Saxony is one of the areas trying to survive a year that experts are already calling a disaster.

Hynix Semiconductor said on Tuesday it would delay the planned sale of a stake in its Chinese joint venture to partner Numonyx by one year. South Korea-based Hynix had planned to sell a stake worth US$100 million to Numonyx as the latter sought to boost its control over the Chinese chip plant. It already sold half the stake and was supposed to sell the rest by the end of this year.

"We will discuss with our controlling shareholders to decide on a loan if necessary," Park Hyun, a spokesman for Ichon, South Korea-based Hynix, said by telephone Monday. Park said details such as the amount, timing and method haven't been determined.