Corporate and legal

Panasonic has posted another hefty annual loss as the consumer electronics giant continues to struggle.

The Japanese company on Friday reported a loss of 754.3 billion yen ($7.42 billion) for fiscal 2013, which ended in March. In fiscal 2012, it posted a loss of 772.2 billion yen. Sales for fiscal 2013 declined 7 percent from the previous year to 7.3 trillion yen ($71.9 billion).

Panasonic had put into place a vast restructuring plan meant to pull the company out of its tailspin, but it conceded today that the results were far below what it was … Read more

Investor Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management have teamed up to offer an alternative to the $24.4 billion buyout deal now before the company's stockholders.

The pair -- two of the computer maker's largest shareholders -- have proposed giving stockholders the option of holding on to their stock in the company and take an additional $12 a share in cash or stock, according to The Wall Street Journal and CNBC.

CNET has contacted Dell for comment and will update this report when we learn more.

The proposal, reportedly made in a letter to Dell's board of … Read more

The latest governmental attack on 3D printed guns came from the U.S. State Department on Thursday.

In a letter sent to Defense Distributed, a nonprofit advocating for the creation of 3D printed firearms, the State Department demanded the removal from a public Web site of a set of 3D files used to print gun components. The State Department said that the online dissemination of the files could violate restrictions on exporting guns covered by International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)

Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson said he obeyed the federal directive. It followed the announcement yesterday by California state … Read more

Despite politicians lining up to regulate 3D printed guns, and a new directive from the U.S. State Department arguing that disseminating 3D files for such weapons may violate weapons export rules, some think that it may all be much ado about nothing.

On Thursday, Forbes reported, the State Department demanded that Defense Distributed, a nonprofit dedicated to creating 3D printed guns, take down a set of files that theoretically enable anyone to print their own firearm.

"The government says it wants to review the files for compliance with arms export control laws known as the International Traffic in … Read more

John McCain wants to make it easier for consumers to buy only the TV shows they want to watch.

On Thursday, the Arizona senator introduced legislation that would force cable operators and other TV providers to split up their so-called programming bundles and instead offer TV shows in smaller, more affordable packages and as a la carte channels. His legislation, called the Television Consumer Freedom Act, also would require sports leagues that use publicly financed stadiums to broadcast home games within their local markets. Now many home games are blacked out in an effort to encourage fans to go to … Read more

We believe in love around here. Equally, we believe that sometimes it goes wrong, through no fault of at least one of the parties concerned.

There is a certain downcast tinge, therefore, on hearing the story of Lee David Clayworth and the woman he left behind -- who didn't want to be left behind.

Clayworth is a Vancouver teacher. Or at least he'd like to be. But, he says, a relationship he had while in Malaysia in 2010 prevents him from even getting a job. His online footprint, you see, reveals all sorts of potentially off-putting (and untrue) … Read more

Huawei CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei broke his silence and publicly denied that his company is involved with cybersecurity threats directed at the U.S.

Ren emerged from behind his veil of secrecy and publicly addressed the media in a rare appearance in New Zealand, where Huawei had just won a contract to build a 4G LTE network, according to Reuters.

While Huawei has grown to be the second-largest telecommunications vendor in the world, the company has had difficulty breaking into the U.S. market due to security concerns expressed by the U.S. government and the belief that Huawei … Read more

Sony returned to the black for the first time in five years, thanks largely to one-time gains from the sale of assets rather than its core consumer electronics products.

The Japanese electronics giant on Thursday reported a net profit of $458 million in the 2012 financial year ending March 31 compared with a loss of $5.7 billion the year earlier (PDF). It also recorded an operating profit of $2.45 billion in 2012 compared with a loss of $820 million last year.

The company recorded $72 million in sales, a meager increase of 4.7 percent over the previous … Read more

Microsoft has reportedly offered to pay as much as $1 billion to buy out the digital assets of Nook Media, the e-book joint venture between the software giant and bookseller Barnes & Noble.

Under the plan, according to internal documents obtained by TechCrunch, Microsoft would purchase preferred units in the joint venture, which includes a college textbook division, while leaving Nook Media with the e-book and e-reader operations.

The documents also reportedly outline plans to discontinue its Android-based tablet business next year as it transitions to a strategy that focuses on licensing content to third-party developers. The bookseller had acknowledged … Read more