Panasonic is moving to acquire Sanyo Electric after squabbling Sanyo shareholders agreed to a plan whereby the smaller electronics company will be acquired for around US$9 billion. US investment powerhouse Goldman Sachs agreed to participate in the deal for a price per share of 131 yen (US$1.47) after it had rejected an earlier price of 130 yen.

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of memory chips and LCD panels and TVs, says the global recession is wiping out profits at those businesses in the fourth quarter.

Research shows that this trend towards power-hungry applications is only set to continue. According to Strategy Analytics, voice call, MP3, FM radio and other handset activities are forecast to remain relatively constant through 2015. However, the use of multimedia functions will increase.

The Technology Research Association for Advanced Display Materials (TRADIM) made a TFT LCD panel with a roll-to-roll method using a TFT array and a color filter formed on film substrates.