-- Sony Corp. and NEC Corp. have agreed to combine their optical disk drive businesses into a single company. Sony will own 55 percent of the new company, which will be called Sony NEC Optiarc Inc. and begin operations on April 3.

-- Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. will spend $110 million to build several IT manufacturing facilities in Tamil Nadu state in southern India, according to Dayanidhi Maran, India's minister for communications and information technology. Taipei, Taiwan-based Hon Hai will manufacture mobile phones and other products in India. The facilities being set up in Tamil Nadu are expected to create more than 10,000 jobs, Maran said.

Global Fact

398M

The number of mobile phone subscribers in China as of January.