LG Electronics will steal a march on its rivals by bringing forward the launch of a 55-inch flat TV using next-generation technology, raising the stakes in a cut-throat battle for the living room between Asia's top tech powerhouses.

Chimei Innolux Corp. (3481.TW) cut its capital expenditure for this year by 40% as it stayed in the red for a seventh consecutive quarter because of sluggish demand for display panels.

Epistar Chairman B.J. Lee yesterday said that sales from lighting LEDs will likely account for 20%, or NT$4 billion (US$137 million at US$1:NT$29), of the company's revenue for this year, up from last year's 15%.

Samsung Electronics has announced revenues of 45.27 trillion Korean won on a consolidated basis for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012, a 22-percent increase year-on-year.

Merger will take effect on July 1, 2012.

The National Solar Mission, which aims to install 20,000 MW capacity of solar energy by 2020, has commissioned 89% of its allotted capacity in its first stage, government officials said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's effort to create jobs in renewable energy is faltering as subsidy cuts and competition from Chinese manufacturers forces the industry to stop hiring for the first time in eight years.

The travel industry complained yesterday that the government's recent decision to raise fuel prices and electricity rates will have a negative impact on the industry due to increased operational costs.

President Ma Ying-jeou repeated his call for energy saving Wednesday and revealed that the Presidential Office might replace all lamps in th

NRG Energy, First Solar and MidAmerican Solar representatives gathered to connect the first 100MW of the 290MW Agua Caliente Solar Project to the grid. The project is owned by NRG Energy and MidAmerican, while operator First Solar designed and constructed the plant in Yuma County, Arizona, using thin-film modules.

Flat-panel maker LG Display Co. said Tuesday that it stayed in the red for a third consecutive quarter, hurt by continued sluggish demand for television panels, but added it's now seeing green shoots of recovery and may swing back to profit in the current quarter.

LG Electronics Inc. posted its first profit in three quarters, beating expectations thanks to a revival in its mobile business and demand for high-end TVs.

LG Electronics Inc, the world's No.2 television maker, more than trebled its quarterly profit to $393 million on improved margins and a pick-up in high-end TV sales, underscoring South Korea's dominance in an industry once ruled by Japanese rivals.

South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Corp. and ESB Novusmodus LP, a fund backed by Irish state utility Electricity Supply Board, led a $15.5 million Series B investment in closely held TenKsolar Inc.

Globalfoundries has started its production ramp on 28nm and anticipates a much smoother ride on 28nm than it had on 32nm.

Xilinx rose as much as 8.1% in extended trading after forecasting sales this quarter that may beat some analysts' estimates.

ST-Ericsson, a chipmaker that got caught up with the wrong crowd, has announced sweeping changes in an effort to stay relevant in the mobile market.

MStar has licensed the ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore and ARM926EJ-S processors, in addition to a range of ARM system IP for use in smart TVs, set-top boxes (STBs) and smartphones. MStar is already a licensee of the ARM Mali-400 MP GPU, which is used in mass production for MStar smart-TV system-on-chip (SoC) solutions.

It's the beginning of the end for the fabless model, according to Mark Bohr of Intel. Bohr also claimed TSMC's recent announcement it will serve just one flavor of 20nm process technology is an admission of failure.

Sandisk's first quarter results were messy and the outlook wasn't much better. The problem: Sandisk is making all the wrong moves and focusing on the wrong customers in the flash memory market.