Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp. said Friday it will cut 1,500 contract workers in Japan by the end of March, and is headed for a billion dollar annual loss, its first in nearly 60 years.

The Tokyo District Court issued a verdict in favor of Sharp Corp in the lawsuit where the company sought a court order to ban imports and sales of an LCD TV and two LCD monitors that use a certain LCD module of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

Sony is considering consolidating its TV operation by eliminating production at one of its two factories in Japan, a company official said Thursday, amid speculation the company is falling into its first annual operating loss in 14 years.

LG Electronics is aiming for 16% overall market share in flat panel TVs and sales of more than 21 million TVs in 2009. By category, the company plans to sell 18 million LCD TVs, giving it 15% market share, and 3 million plasma TVs, for 19% of the market.

Sony is likely to announce closures of Japanese factories and major divisions early next month, the Times of London said on Monday, but the company denied any such plan existed. The maker of Bravia flat TVs and PlayStation video game consoles faces halting sales and mounting piles of inventory in the wake of the financial crisis, even as a stronger yen bites into earnings.

Samsung Electronics plans to introduce the world's slimmest LCD TV at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas from Friday through Sunday. The 6.5mm-thick TV equipped with an LED backlight is seven times thinner than Samsung's Bordeaux 850, the slimmest TV available on the world market.

Turkish television maker Grundig Elektronik has signed a letter of intent to produce Sony brand LCD TVs.

New LCD panel comes with the big boast of being "world's fastest"