Technology

Flextronics will acquire its rival, Solectron, to form one of the world's largest contract electronics manufacturers, the company has announced. Flextronics is the unsung maker of many famous products, including Microsoft's Xbox 360 games console.

UPDATED: Google has denied claims that it has acquired 265.com, a leading Chinese online directory, despite a change in internet domain records that showed it as the owner for several days. Negotiations between the two firms have been rumored for some months, and 265.com altered its domain records last week to indicate that Google was now the owner of the domain.

Many stores operated by AT&T, the exclusive carrier for Apple's iPhone mobile phone, will have only a handful of phones in stock initially, according to analysts who surveyed AT&T staff. Stores revealed that they expect to have the first iPhones on their shelves on June 15 (Update: Apple says June 29, see below).

Vietnam faces near total disconnection from the Internet because thieves are stealing the country's international telecoms cables, says a telecoms executive.

After a gang carted off fiber optic lines earlier this month, the country now relies on a single link to Hong Kong for 90 percent of its international internet and telephone traffic, warned Nguyen Huu Khanh.

Updated: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will visit Chinese subsidiary, Joyo.com, which is said to have lost $13 million last year, Chinese media reported today.