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Hot Off the Wire – Yahoo sells HotJobs to Monster; Symbian smartphone apps are now free; semiconductor industrial espionage case unfolds

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A roundup of the latest news from The Associated Press:

• Yahoo sells HotJobs to Monster for $225 million

NEW YORK - Yahoo Inc. crossed off another chore on its housecleaning list Wednesday with the proposed sale of online help-wanted site HotJobs to rival Monster Worldwide Inc. for $225 million.

The all-cash deal marks another step in Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz's effort to jettison services that have been struggling or don't fit with the Internet company's efforts to focus more on its news, entertainment and communications features.

Yahoo already has closed several unprofitable services and last month agreed to sell e-mail provider Zimbra to VMWare Inc. for an undisclosed amount.

HotJobs' sale price reflects how far it has fallen since Yahoo bought it for $439 million in cash and stock nearly eight years ago. In an ironic twist, Yahoo had to outbid Monster.com's holding company to buy HotJobs.

As often happens in acquisitions, HotJobs' culture quickly clashed with Yahoo's, said Marc Cendella, a former HotJobs executive who now runs another online recruitment service, TheLadders.com. He said nine of HotJobs' top 11 executives left within six months of Yahoo's takeover.

These have been tough times for companies that rely on help-wanted advertising for their income, with the feeble economy and high unemployment rate dampening demand. Monster's profit plunged 85 percent to $19 million last year.

HotJobs is a smaller player in the market than Monster, which generated $905 million in revenue last year. JPMorgan analyst Imran Khan estimated HotJobs 2009 revenue at $900 million.

• Symbian Foundation now offering many smartphone adds for free

NEW YORK - The Symbian Foundation says the software that powers the most smart phones in the world is being made largely available for free for anyone to use.

The foundation was set up in 2008 after Nokia Corp., the biggest maker of Symbian phones, bought out the consortium that made the software. Nokia decided to give the software away starting Thursday to make it more popular with other manufacturers, a move not uncommon in the technology world.

Lee Williams, executive director of the London-based foundation, said it has now completed the largest-ever conversion of proprietary software to "open source," which means the source code, or blueprint for the software, is available to anyone. However, software associated with some phone features has yet to be released.

Symbian software is used on more than 330 million phones around the world, the foundation said. It is facing new and vigorous competition in the smart phone arena from Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Google Inc.'s Android system. Android is also freely available for anyone to use.

Analysts say Symbian, which has more than 10 years of development behind it, is starting to look outdated and has lagged in supporting must-have new features like touch screen. Symbian phones have never been big sellers in the U.S.

The open-source version of the software is known as Symbian 3, and supersedes previous versions like Series 60 and Series 40.

• Semiconductor chip espionage case unfolds

SEOUL - The world's top producers of computer memory chips are embroiled in an apparent case of industrial espionage after South Korean prosecutors indicted 18 people over alleged technology theft.

Prosecutors said Thursday those involved - including employees of U.S. company Allied Materials and its South Korean unit - are suspected of leaking semiconductor technology belonging to South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. to its domestic rival Hynix Semiconductor Inc.

The case highlights the intense competition among chipmakers and other sellers of high tech products, who frequently sue each other over alleged patent infringements.

Samsung and Hynix are the world's top two producers of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips, used mostly in personal computers. Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung is also the world's biggest manufacturer of NAND flash chips, used in digital devices such as cameras, music players and smartphones. Hynix ranks No. 3 in NAND, behind Samsung and Japan's Toshiba Corp.

Prosecutors indicted 18 people on Wednesday, though 14 were not physically detained ahead of trial, said Kim Yeong-cheol, a prosecutor handling the case. He said prosecutors were also seeking a former Samsung employee for questioning.

The technology is believed to have been obtained by employees of the South Korean arm of Applied Materials Inc., a U.S. company that makes equipment for chip manufacturers including Samsung, and then passed on to Hynix, according to prosecutors.

The local operation of Applied Materials had access to Samsung's "core technology" through installing and maintaining the company's chip manufacturing equipment, prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday.

Indicted and being held were one employee each from Samsung and Hynix, the former head of the South Korean arm of Applied Materials - who currently serves as a vice president of the U.S. company - and one of the South Korean unit's current employees, prosecutors said.

Kim, the prosecutor, said no decision has been made whether to seek extradition of a former Samsung employee who is working for Applied Materials in the United States. That person is suspected of leaking Samsung technology to Applied's South Korean arm, Kim said.

Santa Clara, California-based Applied Materials said it was aware of the actions by prosecutors and confirmed that its vice president and some employees of Applied Materials Korea were indicted and detained.

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