SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) – U.S.-based Micron Technology is the likely winner in the bidding for Elpida Memory Inc, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported on Friday, in a deal that would help the failed Japanese chipmaker sustain operations and repay creditors.

Elpida filed for bankruptcy protection in February with 448 billion yen ($5.6 billion) in liabilities – a record for a Japanese manufacturer – after being hit by a strong yen and a slide in prices of DRAM chips for personal computers.

Suitors were likely interested in the chips Elpida manufactures for smartphones and tablets, analysts have said.

In the final round of bidding that closed on Friday, U.S. chipmaker Micron offered around 200 billion yen ($2.5 billion) and pledged to keep the company’s main Hiroshima plant and employees, NHK reported without citing sources.

Micron and Elpida are expected to finalize a deal as early as this month and submit a restructuring plan to the courts by August, the broadcaster said.

South Korea’s SK hynix said earlier on Friday that it had dropped out of the race to buy Elpida. TPG Capital LP and China’s Hony Capital had intended to place a joint bid for Elpida in the final bidding round, sources told Reuters previously.

TPG and Elpida declined to comment. Officials for Micron and Hony were not immediately available for comment on the report.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Less than a fortnight into his job as CEO, Kazuo Hirai sketched out a strategy to revive Sony Corp: a major push into smartphones, growth in games and cameras, and big cost cuts in a TV business that has not made a profit in 8 years.

The Sony veteran, in his first public briefing as CEO, also targeted new business in medical equipment and electric car batteries, and set a target for group sales of 8.5 trillion yen (65 billion pounds) in two years, with an operating margin of more than 5 percent.

Hirai, who took over from Howard Stringer this month, is under pressure to turn around an ailing consumer electronics giant hobbled by TV losses and trampled by today’s gadget leaders Apple and Samsung Electronics

“I am determined to transform and revive Sony. This is our only chance to change,” Hirai told a packed news conference at Sony’s Tokyo headquarters, close to where the company established its first factory 65 years ago.

Hirai came armed with a slew of numerical targets aimed at easing investor concern over mounting losses. Sony expects to have slumped to a record $6.4 billion (4.0 billion pounds) loss in the year just ended.

Sony and Japan’s two other major TV makers, Sharp Corp and Panasonic Corp, have been battered by weak demand, fierce competition and a profit-sapping strong yen that threatens the viability of Japan’s once-mighty television industry.

The three firms expect a combined annual loss of $21 billion (13 billion pounds) – more than Sony’s entire market value, which has slumped by close to a fifth in the past month. Samsung is 10 times more valuable, while Apple, which Sony executives considered buying in the early 1990s, is worth 30 Sony’s.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Sony Corp said it is to cut around 10,000 jobs – 6 percent of its global workforce – as new CEO Kazuo Hirai moves to reduce costs and staunch huge losses at the Japanese electronics giant.

After a brief honeymoon since taking over from Howard Stringer this month, Hirai this week doubled Sony’s annual loss forecast to a record $6.4 billion, and is under pressure to fix an ailing TV unit and turn around a brand that has been trampled on by consumer gadget leaders Apple Inc and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics.

“We have heard a multitude of investor voices calling for change,” Hirai told a packed news conference at Sony’s Tokyo headquarters, close to the company’s first factory established 65 years ago. “Sony will change.”

“Sony has always been an entrepreneurial company. That spirit has not changed,” he said.

In a statement ahead of the briefing, Sony said it would post a restructuring charge of about 75 billion yen ($926 million) in the year to March 2013, and aims to cut its fixed costs in the TV business by 60 percent in the 2013/14 business year from this year’s levels, and trim 30 percent off the business’ operating costs.

Eyeing new business opportunities in the fast-growing medical business, Sony said it was targeting annual sales of 50 billion yen ($617 million) in that sector in 2014/15, and was scouting for acquisitions and other strategic investments.

The job cuts follow two rounds of layoffs Stringer made in his six-year tenure at Sony. Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato noted earlier this week that around 5,000 workers would come off the Sony payroll with the sale of a chemicals business and a small liquid crystal display fabricator.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Shares of Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the inventor of personal music players, slid more than 7 percent on Wednesday after the company more than doubled its annual loss forecast, highlighting the plight of a Japanese TV industry that once dominated living rooms around the world.

Sharp Corp (6753.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Japan’s last big maker of TV liquid crystal displays, and local rival Panasonic Corp (6752.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), also fell.

Sony on Tuesday more than doubled its loss forecast to a record $6.4 billion, while Sharp added $1.24 billion to its loss estimate for the year to end-March.

Combined, Japan’s three tech giants expect to lose $21 billion for the 12 months just ended, roughly the size of Sony’s entire market value.

The three companies have been outgunned by more innovative rivals such as Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Samsung Electronics (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), while a strong yen and tumbling TV prices have exposed a yawning performance gap with their foreign rivals.

Their current predicament could ironically draw some parallels to their 1980s heyday, when previously dominant U.S. consumer electronics makers such as Zenith struggled to make money amid low TV prices and were overtaken by a more cost-efficient Japan Inc.

Now, it is South Korean firms Samsung and LG Electronics (066570.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) that lead the industry.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Sony Corp is cutting 10,000 jobs, about 6 percent of its global workforce, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Monday, as new CEO Kazuo Hirai looks to steer the electronics and entertainment giant back to profit after four years in the red.

The job cuts would be the latest downsizing in Japan Inc where companies from cellphone maker NEC Corp to electronics firm Panasonic Corp are trimming costs in the face of a strong yen and competition from rivals like Apple and Samsung Electronics.

TV makers in particular have been hit hard by the tough business climate as well as sharp price falls, with Sony, Panasonic and Sharp expecting to have lost a combined $17 billion in the fiscal year just ended.

Investors will closely monitor a briefing on Thursday by Hirai, who formally took over this month as chief executive from Howard Stringer, for further clues on how Sony plans to revamp its business.

“Under a new CEO, it’s easier to cut jobs or go in a new direction,” said Yuuki Sakurai, head of fund manager Fukoku Capital, which had around $7 billion worth of assets under management as of end-March 2011.

“One of the things I’d like to see is that they shift their resources to other areas outside TVs … If they stick to TVs, they may have to fight a war they may not be able to win.”

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TOKYO, April 5 (Reuters) – Japan’s top general retailer Seven & I Holdings Co Ltd on Thursday forecast a second straight year of record profit as the company targets a broader demographic to drive domestic convenience-store sales and seeks acquisitions in the United States.

Seven & I’s results will likely set the tone for similarly strong earnings due next week from other retailers such as Aeon Co Ltd, in contrast to heavy losses expected at electronics makers such as Sony Corp and Panasonic Corp .

Convenience store operators in particular, also including Lawson Inc and FamilyMart Co Ltd, increased sales last year as Japanese snapped up food and daily supplies in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami.

To keep these customers coming back, they expanded product lineups with new offerings such as cooking oil, fresh vegetables and rolled sponge cake, appealing to a wider range of customers than the young men who typically frequent convenience stores.

Seven & I President Noritoshi Murata told a briefing that it was important to continue developing new products to target changing Japanese demographics as the population ages and more people live in single- or two-person households.

“We want to expand aggressively in America including through M&A,” he said, noting that Seven & I was looking to add more than 600 stores in the United States this financial year.

The owner of 7-Eleven, the world’s largest convenience store chain, forecast a 7.9 percent rise in operating profit to 315 billion yen ($3.8 billion) for the year that began in March, slightly higher than the average projection for 308.4 billion yen from a poll of 17 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda frequently entertains dignitaries from all over the world, but he was a touch star-struck on Thursday when he hosted a young billionaire with a whiff of celebrity: Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.

As cabinet ministers filed through Noda’s residence for a late afternoon meeting, it was Zuckerberg who drew a fusillade of camera flashes from a hefty media contingent as he strode through the entrance like a movie star.

“It’s a funny feeling to see you here because I watched the film,” Noda told Zuckerberg, referring to “The Social Network” – which did not portray the Facebook co-founder in the most flattering aspect.

“Very different,” laughed the 27-year-old, dressed smartly for the occasion in a grey suit and blue tie.

Noda thanked Zuckerberg for the contribution social media made to communication after last year’s earthquake and tsunami, while Zuckerberg emphasized Facebook’s commitment to Japan, where the company has enjoyed a recent surge in users.

“Japan’s the only country in the world outside the U.S. where we have an engineering office because we’re really committed to making a really good product here,” Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg, who was reportedly on vacation in China before swinging by Japan, was set to make an appearance at Mobile Hack Tokyo, an event for mobile developers to meet with Facebook’s developer relations team.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Sony Corp CEO Kazuo Hirai signaled his determination to turn around the group’s ailing TV business by keeping direct charge of the division, as the Japanese brand fights to regain ground against rivals such as Apple.

Hirai, who formally takes over as chief executive from Howard Stringer next week, inherits a company that – like much of corporate Japan – has been outgunned in recent years by rivals like Apple and Samsung Electronics.

The maker of Bravia televisions and Vaio laptops expects a 220 billion yen ($2.7 billion) net loss for the year to this month, a fourth straight year of losses, and due in large part to a TV business that has not been able to keep up with nimbler and cheaper rivals.

Sony said Hirai would head a new home entertainment division, which includes TVs and replaces the consumer products and services group that he had led.

“The TV business is Sony’s main business and (its recovery) is an absolute condition that must be met for the firm to recover its performance,” said Keita Wakabayashi, an analyst at Mito Securities. “That’s why it will be placed directly under (Hirai’s) control, and means he has to take care of the most important issue.”

Sony hopes Hirai, credited with reviving the PlayStation game business through aggressive cost-cutting, can work similar magic with a TV business that has lost more than $11 billion over eight financial years.

Sony will also form a new unit to oversee its medical business, which it has described as a growth area.

TOKYO, March 27 (Reuters) – Sony Corp CEO Kazuo Hirai signalled his determination to turn around the group’s ailing TV business by keeping direct charge of the division, as the Japanese brand fights to regain ground against rivals such as Apple.

Hirai, who formally takes over as chief executive from Howard Stringer next week, inherits a company that – like much of corporate Japan – has been outgunned in recent years by rivals like Apple and Samsung Electronics.

The maker of Bravia televisions and Vaio laptops expects a 220 billion yen ($2.7 billion) net loss for the year to this month, a fourth straight year of losses, and due in large part to a TV business that has not been able to keep up with nimbler and cheaper rivals.

Sony said Hirai would head a new home entertainment division, which includes TVs and replaces the consumer products and services group that he had led.

“The TV business is Sony’s main business and (its recovery) is an absolute condition that must be met for the firm to recover its performance,” said Keita Wakabayashi, an analyst at Mito Securities. “That’s why it will be placed directly under (Hirai’s) control, and means he has to take care of the most important issue.”

Sony hopes Hirai, credited with reviving the PlayStation game business through aggressive cost-cutting, can work similar magic with a TV business that has lost more than $11 billion over eight financial years.

Sony will also form a new unit to oversee its medical business, which it has described as a growth area.

TOKYO, March 7 (Reuters) – Decades ago, the citizens of Japan’s Futaba town took such pride in hosting part of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex that they built a sign over a promenade proclaiming that atomic power made their town prosperous.

Now, they are scattered around Japan with no clear sign of when they might return to their homes, and their story has become a cautionary tale about the dangerous allure of nuclear power.

“Nuclear Nation,” a documentary that premiered at last month’s Berlin film festival, follows the residents of Futaba who were evacuated after a series of explosions set off by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami at reactors some 3 km (2 miles) away in neighboring Okuma.

With Futaba hit by high levels of radiation, its former residents don’t know when, or even if, they will be able to return to their homes within the 20 km (12 mile) exclusion zone around the plant. In the broader region, tens of thousands were forced to flee.

“You tend to think about the resolution of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, but you have to look at the people,” the film’s director, Atsushi Funahashi, told Reuters.

“The people who got the most damage are the most ignored, and that’s (what) you have to show.”

Besides “Nuclear Nation”, two other March 11-themed documentaries also screened at last month’s Berlin film festival, as filmmakers start focusing their lenses on the worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986.