Panasonic Corp. forecast a record net loss of JPY780 billion for the current year, making it the latest consumer electronics giant to predict declining earnings because of the stronger yen, a slower global economy and the floods in Thailand.

Panasonic will expand its smartphone business beyond its home country of Japan, starting with Europe in March 2012, the electronics giant said today.

Panasonic said Tuesday it will sell one of its main domestic TV panel factories to a new joint venture focused on producing smaller screens, as Japan's big-name manufacturers continue to seek relief from deep losses in their display businesses.

The strong yen has had an impact on several Japanese companies including Toshiba, Honda Motor and Panasonic, which have reported lower second-quarter profits.

A public-private fund that will acquire the small- and mid-size LCD operations of Toshiba, Hitachi and Sony will also buy a Panasonic factory for about JPY20 billion (US$255.5 million), Japanese business daily The Nikkei said.

Sony Corp.,reeling from seven consecutive annual losses in television manufacturing, plunged the most in more than seven months in Tokyo after announcing a reorganization of the business into three groups.

Innovation Network Corp. of Japan is making final arrangements to buy a liquid crystal display panel plant from Panasonic Corp. to boost the production capacity of a joint LCD venture it is forming with three manufacturers, sources said Friday.

Japanese electronics maker Panasonic will scale back domestic semiconductor output by the end of March 2012 and cut about 1,000 jobs, reflecting its recent move to reduce TV panel production, the Nikkei business daily said.

Panasonic Corp will drop a plan to convert a television panel plant in Japan into a solar panel factory, hit by an industry price war and a strong yen that is making exports less competitive, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Consumers who picked up a Panasonic Viera TV last year can now upgrade their IPTV software to match 2011 models.

Rena Yotsu from Panasonic Japan demonstrated the new projector, soon to be available in New Zealand. The event was the opportunity for a group of media to see the brand new Panasonic PT-AE7000E LCD full HD 3D Projector in action.

Panasonic Corp. said Tuesday that it will launch Internet services for its Viera large-screen televisions in Japan on Oct. 4.

Taiwan-based BriView Electronics Corp. has reportedly landed a contract order from Japan's Panasonic for LCD TVs for sales this year, according to industry sources.

PIOL, a joint venture between Panasonic Electric Works and Idemitsu Kosan Company in Japan, began shipping OLED lighting panels to local and overseas lighting module and fixture manufacturers this month.

Panasonic Corp., Sony Corp., and Sharp Corp. all bled red ink for the April-June quarter as a result of the March 11 disaster, according to results released Thursday.

Panasonic plans to cut 40,000 jobs globally over the next two years, the Kyodo news agency and the Nikkei business daily reported. The job losses represent about 10% of the company's workforce, and most of the cuts will come from the company's overseas divisions.

South Korea's LG Electronics has diversified chip suppliers for home appliance products to Hynix Semiconductor and Panasonic away from Toshiba after Japan's devastating earthquake last month.

Consumer electronics giant Sony, chipmakers Elpida Memory and Renesas, and electronics firms Panasonic and Toshiba have all said that production at some plants in northern Japan had been halted again due to power cuts triggered by a major aftershock that shook the region on April 7.

Panasonic has placed a 820 billion yen (US$9.5 billion) bet on the future of green energy by offering to buy out minority shareholders in two subsidiaries specialising in rechargeable batteries, solar cells and other environmental technology.