Sector: Consumer Electronics

Japan's scandal-tainted Olympus will not unveil an equity alliance at its major strategy briefing next month, despite speculation it might do so, sources said on Tuesday.

Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony posted a record net loss of $5.74 billion for the year just ended, hit by losses from its TV business, but forecast a return to profit at an operating level in the current year.

LG Electronics will steal a march on its rivals by bringing forward the launch of a 55-inch flat TV using next-generation technology, raising the stakes in a cut-throat battle for the living room between Asia's top tech powerhouses.

Shareholders of Olympus voted in a new board on Friday but the firm's British ex-CEO, whose dismissal six months ago unveiled the biggest scandal in corporate Japan for decades, threatened to have the result annulled.

Sharp, Japan's last major fabricator of liquid crystal displays for televisions, is seeking more partners to buy stakes in its main Sakai plant in a bid to spin off the LCD production subsidiary, a source familiar with the matter said.

Tokyo prosecutors on Wednesday charged Olympus and six key figures in the $1.7 billion accounting fraud at the camera and endoscope maker, tightening their case in the investigation of one of Japan's biggest corporate scandals. 

Japan's scandal-hit Olympus has promoted Akihiro Nambu to its top financial role just months after some of the firm's largest shareholders called for him to resign over a $1.7 billion accounting fraud.

Apple will email all Australian buyers of its new iPad to offer them a refund, a lawyer for the company said on Wednesday, after the nation's consumer watchdog accused it of misleading advertising over one key aspect of the product.

Shares of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry better known by its trading name Foxconn, rallied over 5 percent Wednesday after it announced it was buying a stake in Japan's Sharp.

Shares of the Apple supplier surged after announcing a deal with Sharp Corp that will make Hon Hai the largest shareholder in Japan's biggest LCD maker. Sharp's shares were untraded with a glut of buy orders.

Michael Woodford, the sacked CEO-turned-whistleblower at Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp, is to publish his memoir of one of Japan's most high-profile frauds around the time of
a key April shareholder vote to approve new managers at the company.

Shares of Sharp lost 4.1 percent to 509 yen after Japan's largest maker of liquid crystal displays named the head of its global operations Takashi Okuda as president to turn around the company as it faces a record annual loss.

Tokyo prosecutors on Wednesday charged Olympus and six key figures in the $1.7 billion accounting fraud at the camera and endoscope maker, tightening their case in the investigation of one of Japan's biggest corporate scandals. 

Japan's securities watchdog said on Tuesday that it was filing  criminal complaints against medical equipment maker Olympus Corp as well as former executives and outside advisers over the company's $1.7 billion accounting fraud.