Samsung Electronics Co

Samsung Electronics Co. sued competitor Sharp Corp., Japan's largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, claiming that it infringed four U.S. patents for the technology used in televisions and computer monitors. Sharp is wrongly importing "products and processes" protected by patents awarded since 2004, Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korea, claimed in a complaint filed Dec. 21 in federal court in Wilmington, Del. The action is part of a continuing battle between the two companies.

Think of it as the digital camera for the lonely. Samsung unveiled a camera Thursday with a view screen on the front as well as on the back. And why would people want this DualView camera, as Samsung calls it? To take pictures of themselves. "The growing popularity of social networking sites has given rise to the self-portrait," Samsung said in its news release, "with many consumers turning their digital cameras on themselves." Many who have used social networking or dating sites can relate to holding a camera at arm's length in front of themselves while snapping a picture.

The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation of makers of the flash memory chips that go into cameras and music players, broadening its crackdown on possible price fixing in the semiconductor business. Samsung Electronics Co., the world's second-largest chip maker, and Toshiba Corp., Japan's biggest maker of semiconductors, said Friday that they were cooperating with the probe. The companies are the world's two biggest makers of flash memory chips.

Shares of Irvine-based Broadcom Corp., a maker of chips for wireless devices, climbed after analysts said a new contract with Samsung Electronics Co. could increase the company's share of the cellphone-chip market. Broadcom said Monday that it had expanded its relationship with Samsung and would provide processors for the South Korean company's third-generation, or 3G, phones. Samsung is the world's second-largest cellphone maker.

Three executives from South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. agreed to plead guilty and serve jail time for participating in a conspiracy to fix the price of computer memory chips, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday. Each executive agreed to pay a $250,000 fine, cooperate with federal authorities on the investigation and serve prison sentences ranging from seven to eight months for their role in a scheme to raise prices for dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, from 1999 to 2002.

Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday that its first-quarter net income rose 26% from a year earlier amid strong demand for large flat-screen televisions. South Korea's largest company earned 1.88 trillion won ($1.95 billion) in the period ended March 31, the company said, also citing equity gains from the performance of overseas subsidiaries. The result was better than expected. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires forecast a 17% increase in profit to 1.

Samsung Electronics Co., Hynix Semiconductor Inc. and Infineon Technologies agreed to pay $160 million to resolve claims that they conspired to drive up the price of computer memory chips. Samsung agreed to pay $67 million; Hynix, $73 million; and Infineon, $20 million, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said after a hearing Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco. "I think the settlements are very good," said Guido Saveri, an attorney for businesses that bought computer memory.

Sony Corp. has regained its spot as the nation's top manufacturer of television sets, but the electronics and entertainment giant is finding that being No. 1 just isn't what it used to be. For 30 years, Sony's Trinitron sets defined the state of the art for color televisions, and Sony held as much as 50% of the high-end market some years.

An executive with the U.S. unit of South Korea's Samsung Electronics agreed to plead guilty and serve prison time for taking part in price-fixing in the computer memory chip business, the Justice Department said. Samsung marketing executive Thomas Quinn is the fourth Samsung manager to plead guilty in the U.S. government's memory chip probe. He will serve eight months in prison and pay a $250,000 fine under the plea deal, the department said.