Japan's Sanyo Electric plans to cut up to 1,000 jobs to revamp its struggling businesses before being bought by Panasonic, a press report said Tuesday.

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.

South Korea's exports fell by more than 15% for a second straight month in December, adding to signs the economy is headed for its first recession since 1998. President Lee Myung Bak said South Korea will run an "economy-emergency government" this year to fight the worst economic crisis since its 1997 $57 billion bailout by the IMF.

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

TCL, a major Chinese television and mobile phone manufacturer, announced that it has started mass production of the LCD module (LCM) at its Huizhou plant in Guangdong province, aiming at further controlling costs and increasing profitability.