Global News Update: Tuesday, December 2, 2008

In today's podcast: After outage, Microsoft makes eBay rebates faster for Cashback users; Sprint and Clearwire complete merger deal; and global semiconductor sales fall as consumer confidence fades.

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Microsoft is making payback quicker on its Cashback program after the service suffered an outage Friday and failed to give some people discounts they were eligible for. Cashback is a Microsoft Live Search offering that gives money back to people who search for and buy products from retailers that participate in the program. The new "instant cashback" feature delivers rebates to eBay shoppers immediately, rather than after 60 days. It works for people who buy products through the cashback program and pay for them using PayPal. The feature is only available to certain "eligible" users, as determined by eBay.

Sprint Nextel and wireless wide-area network operator Clearwire have completed a deal to create a new company and build a nationwide WiMax network with help from Intel, Google and three cable operators. The deal, announced in May, brings together Sprint's and Clearwire's radio spectrum holdings and fledgling WiMax operations under a new company that will retain the Clearwire name.
Clearwire plans to offer a mobile WiMax service, called Clear, with average downstream speeds of 2M bps (bits per second) to 4M bps. Sprint's WiMax service in the Baltimore area, under the Xohm brand name, will gradually transition to the Clear name.

Global semiconductor revenue is expected to fall this year as demand for PCs and consumer electronics slows down, with the trend continuing to affect chip makers next year, analyst firm iSuppli said on Monday. Consumer confidence has faded because of the global financial crisis, which has led to restrained spending on products like consumer electronics and PCs. Slowing orders for semiconductors used in those products have in turn impacted chip makers. There is no driving force that could immediately lift the semiconductor market out of its slump and the trend could continue next year, Ford said.

The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that competitors did not infringe chip-packaging patents owned by Tessera Technologies, sending the semiconductor vendor's stock down nearly 10 percent at the end of trading on Monday. Tessera filed an ITC complaint against ATI Technologies, Freescale Semiconductor, Motorola, Spansion, Qualcomm, and ST Microelectronics, that alleged these companies infringed on two patents. The ITC ruling, by an administrative law judge found that Tessera's patents are valid but were not infringed upon. In response, Tessera issued a statement saying the company was "disappointed" by the finding.

...And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I'm Sumner Lemon in Singapore. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.