Tokyo - Following its recently announced plans to scale back in-house television component production, Sony Corp. said Thursday that it is ending its joint venture with Sharp to produce and sell large-screen LCDs.

According to reports from Japan, Sony will sell back to Sharp its 7 percent stake in the Sharp Display Products Corp. joint venture that began in 2009.

Sony will receive 10 billion yen ($126 million) for the stake, which is what it originally invested in the operation based in Sakai city, western Japan.

Bentonville, Ark. - Walmart will offer discounted prices on select CE products as part of its June 3-9 Father's Day event.

Offerings, which will be available in stores and/or online, will include:

•        a 32-inch Element LCD TV (720p, 60Hz)  for $198
•        a 40-inch Element LCD TV (1080p, 60Hz) for $278
•        a 4GB Xbox 360 with Kinect bundle including Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 for $249, a $109 savings;

London - Global factory-level shipments of phablets, the cellular device that is larger than a smartphone but smaller than a tablet, will increase 10-fold in 2012 to 19.2 million compared with 2011, ABI Research said.

In 2015, global phablet shipments will hit 208 million.

In North America, phablet sales were non-existent in 2011 but will jump to 4.4 million in 2012 and rise to 55.5 million in 2016, the research and consulting company said.

ABI defines phablets as having a touchscreen between 4.6 to 5.5 inches in size.

Seattle - Amazon.com unveiled Wednesday its Never Before on DVD store (www.amazon.com/neverondvd), offering customers the opportunity to purchase DVD copies of up to 2,000 more obscure legacy movie and TV titles that were not previously available in the disc format from studios including Disney, Warner, Fox and Sony, among others.

Port Washington, N.Y.

New York - Tivoli Audio is launching its first pair of headphones and its first two tabletop radios with stereo Bluetooth.

Palo Alto, Calif. - Hewlett-Packard reported lower net earnings and net revenue in its fiscal second quarter, ended April 30, and will cut 27,000 jobs, or about 8 percent of its staff.

GAAP net earnings were down 31 percent to $1.6 billion from the prior year's second quarter, with GAAP net revenue down 3 percent year on year to $30.7 percent.

In its personal systems group, revenue was flat year over year with a 5.5 operating margin, and consumer

revenue declined 4 percent year over year.

Playa Vista, Calif. - Belkin recently celebrated the grand opening of its first retail store, located in the Westfield Culver City Mall in Los Angeles.

Arlington, Va. - The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the Mobile Electronics Retailers Association (MERA) announced they are embarking on a joint campaign meant to raise awareness of aftermarket in-vehicle technologies.

The spring Digital Driver campaign, which kicks off May 24, is the first leg of what will be an ongoing event, Chris Cook, MERA president, told TWICE. The campaign will focus on five key entertainment-focused areas:

• Bluetooth audio streaming;

• Internet in the vehicle;

Englewood, Colo. - Dish Network and said Wednesday they have reached a deal to bring the DishWorld service to the Roku streaming platform in the U.S.

The agreement will enable Roku to offer more than 50 international programming channels, including the leading Hindi, Arabic, Urdu, Bangla and Brazilian channels. The DishWorld service enables Dish to expand its distribution of ethnic channels into urban and multi-dwelling unit markets difficult to reach by satellite.