electronics maker

Japan's fair trade watchdog on Thursday slapped Sharp Corp. with a 261 million yen ($3 million) fine for fixing prices of liquid crystal display panels used for Nintendo's popular DS portable game machines.

The Fair Trade Commission said Sharp and Hitachi Display Ltd., a unit of Hitachi Ltd., had violated the Anti-monopoly law by controlling prices. A commission official said the investigation began in December 2006. He declined to say why Hitachi Display got no penalty.

While the nation's top three automobile giants are trying to convince the government that they need a bailout, other businesses are doing what they can to stay afloat even if it means slashing thousands of positions.

Today, Sony joined the growing list of companies who have had to cut a percentage of their workforce to stay competitive. Sony announced Tuesday that it will slash 8,000 positions between now and March 2010 in its electronics business, cut operation costs, and cut inventory.

Panasonic Corp.'s plans to take over rival Sanyo Electric Co. would create the world's second-largest electronics maker. But Panasonic already has plenty of gadgets. Instead, the crown jewels Panasonic wants from Sanyo are green.

Diversified electronics maker Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said it is re-entering the U.S. computer market with a range of branded products that build on its component supply strengths.

The Korean-based company will introduce on Tuesday new ultralight notebooks designed to appeal to potential buyers of Apple Inc's ground-breaking MacBook Air and smaller "netbook" models from the likes of Asustek Computer.

Electronics said Friday its profit rose 37 percent in the first quarter as strength in mobile phones and liquid crystal displays offset weakness in semiconductors.

But Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. said its profit plummeted 95 percent in the January-March quarter due to costs of its exit from next-generation video HD DVD business.

And Samsung memory chip rival Hynix Semiconductor Inc. said it swung to a quarterly loss on a sharp decline in chip prices amid oversupply in the industry.