Dongbu HiTek, the group's chip making affiliate, may supply its latest flat-screen driver chip for Japan's Panasonic and NEC.

oshiba has become the latest Japanese company to sweep away its top management as red ink floods businesses' accounts and analysts warn of a two-year crisis in Asia's technology sector.

Aiming to outdo Amazon.com and recapture the crown for the most digital titles in an e-book library, Sony is announcing Thursday a deal with Google to make a half million copyright-free books available for its Reader device, a rival to the Amazon Kindle.

Many Asian countries are handing out cash and vouchers to get people spending again. But real economic recovery may take a lot more. One-off payments aren't about to alter lifelong saving habits. To encourage higher spending, governments really need to improve public health, education, and retirement benefits—initiatives that would take years to kick in.

Three years ago, as head of Toshiba's (TSBAa.BE) power business, Norio Sasaki orchestrated the tech conglomerate's $5.4 billion acquisition of Westinghouse's nuclear-power-plant business. Now, as Sasaki prepares to take over the president's post, he will have to show the same willingness to take chances as he tries to help overhaul the company after its biggest-ever expected annual loss.

An end-of-March deadline for Qimonda AG to find investors has been extended, and liquidation of the memory-chip maker is still a possibility, according to court officials in Munich.

A wave of consolidation is sweeping the solar power industry.

International Business Machines is in talks to buy Sun Microsystems in a combination that would bolster IBM's heft on the Internet, in data storage and in government and telecommunications areas, according to people familiar with the matter.

Energy Conversion Devices' shares plummeted 30.3% in morning trading on Tuesday, after the solar-equipment maker warned investors that its third-quarter earnings would fall short of earlier projections amid a weakening economic environment.

"We want to make sure the government will not simply inject capital into any industry, but hope we could use our leverage to help build up the industry again," Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said in a speech.

Discovery Communications says the Kindle electronic book readers from Amazon.com violate a patent that Discovery registered in 2007.