Philips, Samsung and Infineon in 138m-euro cartel fine

Philips, Samsung and Infineon have been fined 138m euros (£110m; $182m) by the European Commission (EC) for fixing prices of chips in used in smartphones.

The electronics giants "colluded" on pricing, contracts and capacity between 2003 and 2005, the EC said.

Infineon was fined 82.8m euros, Samsung 35.1m euros, and Philips 20.2m euros.

Germany's Infineon and Dutch firm Philips rejected the charge and said they would appeal. South Korea's Samsung had yet to comment.

Renesas, a joint venture between Hitachi and Mitsubishi, avoided a fine for revealing the existence of the cartel, the EC said.

The three fined companies

Intelligent cars draw investors to tech stocks

Technology and telecoms firms could be the big winners in a connected car market that may be worth $50 billion over the next decade, luring investors away from traditional automakers.

Chip-makers or tech giants such as Infineon and Google are among a variety of companies involved in the rapid development and testing of intelligent cars from those that drive themselves to those allowing a driver to use mobile phone apps through the dashboard.

A number of carmakers are embracing the trend, with Nissan Motor Co, Volkswagen AG's Audi and Toyota Motor Corp working with outside tech firms to