Mr. Philips was the last member of his family to serve as president of the company, a worldwide concern based in Amsterdam that sells consumer electronics, lighting, semiconductors and medical technology.

Agreements have been reached on importing American beef and citrus, trading stock, practicing law, and selling semiconductors and supercomputers.

Quickly, Samsung was everywhere, selling semiconductors, televisions, cellphones, music players and digital cameras.

The commission of the European Community said today that it was investigating charges that Japanese companies were selling semiconductors at unfairly low prices in the European market.

The United States has accused Japan of violating an agreement to refrain from selling semiconductors in third countries at prices below cost and to increase its purchases of American microchips.

Against that background, the failure of Japan to live up to its agreement to stop selling semiconductors, or computer chips, at artificially low prices is seen as a particularly flagrant violation.

He contacted Semiconductors Ltd (who at that time sold semiconductors made by Plessey) and ordered rejects to repair.

Sony is also selling semiconductors to other manufacturers.

Its largest is the transportation and standard products group, which sells semiconductors to the automotive industry and accounted for 46 percent of Freescale's $5 billion in sales last year.

The Commerce Department had found that the Japanese were selling semiconductors, the building blocks of computers, at 40 percent to 60 percent below cost at the end of February.