Privately held semiconductor company Novafora Inc agreed to buy microchip designer Transmeta Corp in a cash transaction worth $255.6 million. The expected offer price of between US$18.70-19.00 per share is at a 7-8% premium to Transmeta's closing price on November 17. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2009. Transmeta also entered into an agreement under which Advanced Micro Devices will transfer 700,000 of Transmeta's preferred stock to the company.

Semiconductor company Intersil said Wednesday it is cutting its global work force by 9% because of the current economic turmoil. "Unfortunately, we are entering a period of significant uncertainty and we feel the prudent approach is to respond quickly," said Dave Bell, chief executive, in a statement.

The United States government should not worry about deficits over the next two years while spending money to jumpstart the ailing economy, President-elect Barack Obama said in a television interview that aired on Sunday. "The consensus is this, that we have to do whatever it takes to get this economy moving again, that we have to -- we're going to have to spend money now to stimulate the economy."

Germany's state of Saxony and Infineon's loss-making unit Qimonda are in talks about a possible rescue plan, a spokesman for Saxony's Economics Ministry said on Monday. A company spokesman declined to comment on the report but said Qimonda and the state in eastern Germany were in constant contact. Qimonda runs a production plant in Dresden -- the capital of Saxony.

The Finnish communications giant said it expects to ship 330 million handsets in the quarter. Consequently, Nokia's shipments forecast for the whole of 2008 dropped from 1.26 billion units to 1.24 billion.

The Paris-based body has forecast a fall in US economic activity of 0.9% in 2009, with the Euro area contracting by 0.5% and Japan by 0.1%. Economic growth in the 30 countries of the OECD is forecast to fall by 0.3%, before growing by 1.5% in 2010.

The latest data from IDC shows worldwide PC shipments into the United States will be 1.1% lower in the fourth quarter than they were for the same period a year ago. By comparison, PC shipments to the US increased nearly 11% during the fourth quarter of 2007. Citigroup also predicted that 2009 PC sales would be worse than it previously had thought. "It is clear that the PC industry is feeling the full impact of global economic recession."

Key issues agreed by world leaders at this summit included: reform of international financial institutions, a global free-trade deal, improvements to financial market transparency, banks and financial institutions' incentives "prevent excessive risk taking," to draw up a list of financial institutions whose collapse would endanger the global economic system, strengthening countries' financial regulatory regimes and taking a "fresh look" at rules that govern market manipulation and fraud.

World leaders are to continue talks on measures to limit the current financial turmoil at a summit in Washington. They hope to agree on long-term reforms to cut the risk of further crises and a coordinated economic stimulus plan. China is likely to be key to any reforms agreed. With nearly $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves and an economy that is still expanding, albeit at a slower pace, it is one of the few countries attending that has the cash to help countries in distress.

Falling for a fourth straight month, US retail sales plunged a record 2.8% in October as sales of autos and gasoline plummeted, the Commerce Department estimated Friday. Excluding the 5.5% drop in auto purchases, retail sales fell a record 2.2%.

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organisation is planning to sell the devices via online store Amazon's European outlets from 17 November. When it goes on sale the XO laptop is expected to cost £268 (313 euros) and should be available in 27 EU nations as well as Switzerland, Russia and Turkey. The original idea for the OLPC was to create a small, powerful laptop for school children that would sell in the millions yet cost less than $100.

Recession has hit much of Europe, data showed on Friday, confirming a widespread economic downturn that world leaders hope to tackle at a weekend summit in Washington. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for more coordinated measures to spur economic growth, a policy area where there may be more consensus.

"The downturn trend in our economy is more obvious, especially since September. We hope a rapid downturn in growth will not occur," said Mu Hong, a deputy chairman of the nation's main planning agency. Beijing is moving quickly to launch the package and will distribute most of a planned 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) in additional government spending within the next two weeks. The plan calls for higher spending on infrastructure and social programs in an effort to spur domestic consumer spending and reduce reliance on exports.

Mitsubishi Pico-portable projector is not related to the palm-sized mobile Pico chipset projector built for handheld devices as we accustomed to, it is just another business class portable projector happens to carry the name of Pico.

Qualcomm has has stopped development of its next-generation, high-speed wireless technology Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) which was originally intended as an alternative to LTE and WiMAX 4G telecomunications standards.

...financial institutions will be allowed to loan a total of NT$600 billion to businesses under the program, which runs until 2010. Sources have suggested that the government should be more audacious in trying to raise funds to stimulate industry and public construction.