A House panel on Thursday planned to examine the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations oversight of the auto industry in the latest congressional hearing linked to Toyotas recall of more than 8 million vehicles worldwide. Safety groups have accused NHTSA of being too cozy with the Japanese automaker while lacking the resources to test for vehicle problems that could be electronic, not mechanical.
“NHTSA has been viewed by the motor vehicle industry for years as a lapdog, not a watchdog,” Joan Claybrook, a former NHTSA administrator under President Jimmy Carter, said in prepared testimony.
Congress is considering new auto industry reforms following - - - - >

The top court said that ex-Samsung chief Lee Kun-hee was not guilty, reiterating a judgment made by the Seoul High Court last year. The charges had stemmed from long-standing allegations of dubious financial transactions in the larger Samsung Group conglomerate.
Samsung has been engulfed in legal uncertainty in recent years and the decisions are likely to help remove some of that burden. Samsung Electronics Co., the groups flagship corporation, has been without a chairman since Lee stepped down last year after being indicted on tax evasion and breach of trust charges.
Samsung Group comprises dozens of companies. Besides - - - - >

Electronic Arts Inc.s “The Sims 3,” scheduled to go on sale June 2, was downloaded at least 180,000 times from May 18 to May 21, according to BigChampagne LLC, a company that monitors file sharing. That outpaces the 400,000 downloads over three weeks for Electronic Arts “Spore,” the most-pirated game of 2008.
“Thats an impressive number,” said Joe Fleischer, the head of marketing and co-founder of Beverly Hills, California- based BigChampagne. “If people want the content and can download it on the Internet, which is pretty much - - - - >

“What weve been lacking so far this year is any reason to buy hardware,” Riccitiello said in an interview this week. “EA Sports Active may be the first software catalyst that can move hardware.” The sports game went on sale yesterday.
The number of Wii consoles sold in the U.S. slumped 52 percent in April following a 17 percent fall in March, according to researcher NPD Group Inc. The slide led a 17 percent drop in revenue for the industry last month. Electronic Arts is adding Wii - - - - >

“What weve been lacking so far this year is any reason to buy hardware,” Riccitiello said in an interview this week. “EA Sports Active may be the first software catalyst that can move hardware.” The sports game went on sale yesterday.
The number of Wii consoles sold in the U.S. slumped 52 percent in April following a 17 percent fall in March, according to researcher NPD Group Inc. The slide led a 17 percent drop in revenue for the industry last month. Electronic Arts is adding Wii - - - - >

Sony, which makes Bravia flat-panel TVs and Cyber-shot digital cameras, also said Thursday it is closing three plants in Japan this year to help turn its business around. That brings the total number of factories it is closing globally to eight by the end of March 2010. It is also in the midst of cutting 16,000 workers from its payrolls.
Hit by dropping sales and the strong yen, Sony lost 165 billion yen in the January-March quarter, compared to a 29 billion yen profit for the same period the previous year.
Sony joins a string of other big Japanese corporate names, including - - - - >

NEC Electronics is considering options to improve competitiveness including a tie-up with privately held Renesas and hasnt come to a decision, Shinichi Kaede, a spokesman at the Kawasaki, Japan-based chipmaker, said today. The shares rose the most in almost four months after Kaedes comments, made in response to a Nikkei newspaper report.
Renesas, a semiconductor venture of Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp., and NEC Electronics, the chip unit of NEC Corp., aim to reach an agreement this month and combine by April 2010, the Nikkei said. - - - - >

Stringer, 67, will assume the expanded role from April 1, Tokyo-based Sony said today. Chubachi, 61, will become vice chairman in charge of product safety, quality and environmental issues.
The reassignment of Chubachi, a 32-year veteran at Sony, may help clear the way for Stringer to reorganize the company as the global recession erodes sales. Sony is cutting 16,000 workers and shutting plants to weather a slump that forced the worlds second-largest maker of consumer electronics to forecast a record 260 billion yen ($2.7 billion) full-year operating - - - - >

The net loss was Samsungs first since the company began reporting results on a quarterly basis in 2000 and underlines the challenges facing electronics companies worldwide as major economies flounder in recession.
The Suwon, South Korea-based company has struggled with falling prices for chips and flat screens and waning consumer appetite. Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. on Thursday projected its first annual loss in 14 years.
The results showed that “our company could not escape the rapid decline in the global economy,” Robert Yi, vice president for investor relations, told a conference call.
The result wasnt as bad as the net loss of - - - - >

Seventy-two cars, trucks and SUVs received the top safety pick designation for 2009, more than double the number of vehicles in the 2008 model year and three times the number in 2007.
“The sheer number of this years winners indicates that automakers have made huge strides to improve crash protection,” said Institute president Adrian Lund.
The selected vehicles are the best in protecting people in front, side and rear crash tests based on institute evaluations during the year. The vehicles are required to have electronic stability control, or ESC, to qualify for the award.
IIHS said electronic stability control is now standard equipment - - - - >