Toshiba stops domestic LCD TV production

Toshiba has halted production of LCD televisions in Japan due to falling demand, a spokesman has told the the BBC.

The producer of Regza brand TV sets said it had stopped operations at its only domestic manufacturing plant in Fukaya, Saitama Prefecture.

Toshiba has other LCD TV factories in Poland, Egypt, Indonesia and China.

Japanese electronics firms are struggling with a shrinking TV market and competition from South Korea.

Read more: BBC News

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Sony to sell LCD venture stake to Samsung for $940 million

[ via Yahoo News ] 26 Dec

Sony Corp has agreed to sell its nearly 50 percent stake in an LCD joint venture with Samsung Electronics to the South Korean company for $940 million, as it struggles to reduce huge losses at its TV business.

The seven-year-old venture cut its capital by 15 percent in July and industry sources had said Sony was negotiating an exit, aiming to switch to cheaper outsourcing for flat screens for its TVs while Samsung pushes ahead with next-generation displays.

In November, Sony, the world's third largest flat panel TV maker, warned of a fourth straight year of net losses for the financial year to next March, with its TV unit alone set to lose $2.2 billion on tumbling demand and a surging yen.

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