STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Ericsson is taking a $1.2 billion charge in a bid to write off its exposure to ST-Ericsson, adding to doubts over the future of the loss-making joint venture after partner STMicroelectronics said it was pulling out. Ericsson, the world's biggest equipment maker for mobile telecom networks, said on Thursday it would take the 8 billion Swedish crown hit in its fiscal fourth quarter in a move set to plunge it into a net loss for the three month period. ...

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SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the world's No.1 memory-chip maker, said on Thursday it has completed talks with the state government of Texas where it plans to invest $3.9 billion to expand system-chip production lines and that the expansion would proceed. (Reporting by Ju-min Park and Se Young Lee; Editing by Matt Driskill)

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(Reuters) - Spotify is in the middle of a $100 million financing round that could value the music streaming company at just over $3 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported citing sources. The Journal said Spotify would raise the fresh capital from multiple investors including Goldman Sachs. The WSJ report did not name any other investors. Spotify has raised capital from outside investors several times since it set up shop in 2006, and was earlier reported to have been looking to secure a capital boost of about $200 million, at a valuation of about $4 billion. ...

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(Reuters) - Genealogy website operator Ancestry.com agreed to be acquired for $1.6 billion by a group led by Europe-based private equity firm Permira Advisors LLC, four months after it put itself up for sale following the cancellation of a TV show based on its research. The company, whose website helps users trace their family roots, will be taken private at $32 per share, a 10 percent premium to the stock's Friday closing price of $29.18. Shares of the company rose to $31.49 in early trading on the Nasdaq on Monday. ...

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(Reuters) - Cellphone tower operator SBA Communications Corp will buy 3,252 tower sites in the United States and Puerto Rico from privately held TowerCo for about $1.45 billion to take advantage of explosive growth in data traffic from users of mobile devices such as Apple Inc's iPhone and iPad. SBA, which has a market value of $6.64 billion, is the smallest of the three major U.S. tower companies but it is growing quickly as competition among existing participants is limited and entry barriers are high. The purchase, for $1.2 billion in cash and 4. ...

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Digitimes' poor track record has been thrust into the spotlight in recent days, but that hasn't stopped one of the Taiwanese news site's reports from having a major effect on stock prices for Samsung and Hynix. The report from earlier this week claims that Apple has placed "huge" orders for DRAM chips with Elpida, soaking up half of the capacity at the firm's main plant in Hiroshima, Japan.

1 GB of Elpida DRAM in third-generation iPad (Source: iFixit)
As noted by Reuters, the rumor has had a significant effect on fellow DRAM manufacturers Samsung and Hynix, with Samsung losing $10 billion in market value today in a 6% stock decline. The smaller Hynix was down nearly 9%

"It looks like Apple doesn't want to see Samsung and hynix dominate the chip market. Apple wants to maintain its bargaining power by keeping Elpida running," said Choi Do-yeon, an analyst at LIG Investment & Securities.

Elpida filed for bankruptcy in late February, and Micron has emerged as a likely acquirer for the company. The combined Micron-Elpida would be a strong competitor in the DRAM market, sparking concerns for others in the competitive industry.

DRAM, the volatile memory used to hold active applications and other data for use while a device is in operation, is a commodity in the consumer electronics market, with Apple routinely sourcing from multiple suppliers and shifting orders to achieve the best pricing.

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