Tech Biz Recap: Apple WORRIES, Another Yahoo RESIGNATION

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of the Japanese firm Sharp’s top customers, which is why the former is likely monitoring Foxconn’s attempts to renegotiate its 9.9 percent stake in the latter. Sharp shares have been problematic recently, and dropped by another 5.7 percent Monday following a profit warning. Analyst Alberto Moel explains that “Apple needs Sharp. Sharp’s capacity is large enough that if it were taken offline, it could hurt Apple.”

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It’s smartphone wars, as chip makers such as Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) and Taiwan’s MediaTek battle it out in the emerging rivalry of less expensive smartphones that cost under $200, attracted by high volumes and fast growth. However, Intel and Qualcom are partnering with Lenovo; the latter two companies last week launched the first devices that employ dual-core chips from Qualcomm.

Shares of Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE:STP) move down modestly on word (Reuters) that the China Development Bank, which funded the risky $692 million Global Solar Fund loan which Suntech guaranteed, was warned more than once by private equity firm Mandarin Capital not to lend money to GSF, because of the high risk of fraud in Southern Italian solar ventures. Mandarin managing partner Alberto Forchielli remarks that “GSF smacked of a scam.”

There has been another Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) executive resignation, this time its Strategy Senior Vice President Jim Heckman, but his exit is unsurprising as he was close to former interim Chief Executive Ross Levinsohn. Heckman also was pushing the company to outsource its ad technology operations, and current Chief Executive Marissa Mayer might not have been pleased at that, being a tech person herself. Observers now wonder if others who were close to Levinsohn, perhaps sales chief Michael Barrett, will also move out.

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