Voices

Will Japanese Smartphones Survive?

A decade ago, Japan was known as the land of uniquely advanced mobile phones with Internet capabilities and various other features rarely seen elsewhere in the world. But those days are long gone.

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Panasonic Posts Another Full-Year Loss

Panasonic Corp. Friday posted net losses exceeding ¥750 billion ($7.4 billion) for the second straight year, dragged down by hefty restructuring charges aimed at fixing its ailing electronics business.

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Panasonic Draws U.S. Bribery Probe

U.S. authorities are investigating whether a unit of Japanese electronics giant Panasonic Corp. paid bribes abroad to land business, according to company documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Big Blue Is Still the Big Dog of Patents

IBM dominates the patent race for the 20th consecutive year.

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For Sale in Japan: Electronics Assets

Panasonic Corp. said Friday it agreed to sell the digital-camera business it inherited in its 2009 acquisition of Sanyo Electric Co. to a Japanese private-equity firm. The deal is symbolic of how Japan’s struggling consumer-electronics companies are setting aside years of resistance to get serious about shedding nonessential assets and streamlining their sprawl of operations.

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EU Fines Seven for TV-, Monitor-Tubes Cartels

Electronics giants Philips Electronics N.V ., Samsung SDI Co. Ltd. and Panasonic Corp. are among seven companies fined €1.47 billion ($1.92 billion) by European regulators Wednesday for operating cartels in television- and computer-monitor tubes over two decades.

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Panasonic Posts Loss of Nearly $9 Billion

In one of the biggest quarterly losses ever for a Japanese company, Panasonic Corp. reported a net loss approaching $9 billion for the three months through September due mainly to massive restructuring costs.

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Panasonic Returns to Profit

On the heels of recording its largest-ever annual loss, Panasonic Corp. said Tuesday that it returned to profit in the first quarter, boosted by cost cuts that helped stem the bleeding of red ink at its flat-panel television business.

NCR Turns the iPad Into a Cash Register

The company that by 1925 had put a cash register in every store in America wants small businesses back.

Sony, Panasonic in TV Tie-Up Talks

Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. are in talks to jointly develop or produce next-generation flat-panel television sets, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday, in a move that aims to defray the heavy cost of manufacturing a new display technology.

2011: The Year of Too Many Tablets