Japan's Sharp in LCD tie-up with Taiwan's Hon Hai

As reported earlier, at least one prominent hedge fund manager, Dan Loeb, is very bullish on Sony (or at least has played his cards well enough to buy the stock 50% lower and is using today's ramp to offload to unwitting momentum chasers as he did with Herbalife). Whether he is merely using the opportunity to earn some activism brownie points on the background of the overall levitation of the Japanese stock market, or is genuinely convinced there is upside for Sony remains to be seen.

Sharp will enter into a capital alliance with Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry as the Japanese tech giant tries to turn around its unprofitable liquid crystal display panel business.

SAKAI, Japan (Reuters) - Hon Hai Precision Industry and Sharp Corp may spend over $1 billion to boost capacity at the world's most advanced LCD panel factory in western Japan, part of an effort to rescue century-old Sharp from the wreck of Japan's sinking TV industry.

Sharp's announcement that it will team up with Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision on a liquid-crystal display deal is the latest example of the "tectonic changes" rippling through hard-hit Japan Inc.Once the world's top makers of home appliances and electronics, Japanese producers have lost much of their lustre as they bleed red ink in the face of a fearsome attack from rising Asian rivals.

Japanese electronics giant Sony has agreed to sell its stake in a joint liquid crystal display panel venture in South Korea to its partner Samsung Electronics, the two companies said Monday.Samsung will acquire all of Sony's stake in S-LCD Corp., making it a wholly owned subsidiary of the Korean company, they said in a statement.The Asian electronics giants have worked together since the 1990s in the semiconductor and LCD fields.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry is

Japanese electronics giant Sharp said on Tuesday it would report a record full-year loss of $4.7 billion, as the firm struggles to turn around its sagging liquid crystal display television business.The company, which will report its results later this month, said it was now expecting a shortfall of 380 billion yen ($4.7 billion) for the year to March, up from an earlier forecasted loss of 290 billion yen.