Acer says it's giving its channels a $150 millionsales allowance - resulting in an operating loss of the same amount - having found "high channel inventory and disputed accounts receivable" in its Europe, Middle East and Africa operations.

The company is also cutting around 300 employees from its EMEA operation, which will cost around $30 million in compensation but will save around $30 million per year.

Microsoft has officially previewed the next major release of the Windows Phone 7 platform. It's code-named 'Mango' and will include more than 500 new features.

This update will be available free to existing Windows Phone 7 customers and is expected to be included on new phones from the autumn. Those new phones will be produced by Microsoft's existing partners - including Nokia - and by new manufacturers including Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE.

Mark Bridge writes:

There's one tech story that’s dominated the week’s news: Microsoft buying Skype. "Why?" and "Really?" appear to be the top questions; we'll do our best to answer them and provide some more insight in Wednesday's podcast.

Samsung and Google have announced a notebook computer that uses the Chrome operating system. Unlike other notebook and laptop computers, almost all user information is stored online 'in the cloud'.

The Samsung Series 5 Chromebook has a 12.1-inch screen and is just 2cm thick.

Acer CEO and company president Gianfranco Lanci has resigned from the company today.

Company chairman JT Wang has taken over this role in the interim, while Walter Deppeler - previously deputy president of Acer Europe, Middle East, Africa - has been appointed as the new Acer EMEA President