The list of supporters (PDF) of the Stop Online Pirate Act (SOPA) has been updated. it appears that Sony and Nintendo have both dropped out, which indicates that they are not directly in support of the bill as a company any more. Both of these companies were endorsing the bill back in November. Likely the two companies saw the outrage that Internet advocates have made about the bill and decided to no longer be associated with SOPA. [Electronista]

Sony is selling their shares in LCD panel joint-venture company S-LCD to Samsung electronics for $940 million. Sony is struggling to make profits from their TV line. S-LCD is a joint venture between Sony and Samsung. Now Samsung will now fully own the subsidiary. This deal is expected to close in January 2012.

Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) and Ericsson have been known as Sony Ericsson for the past 10 years, but the combined company has been through a decline in market share. Now Ericsson will have until mid-2012 to clear their name from marketing materials and other combined business related operations. After that Sony will develop phones strictly under the Sony-only brand. [Times Of India]

Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) has forecasted their fourth consecutive annual loss and has slashed their TV sales targets due to the yen reaching a postwar high and due to floods in Thailand, which caused a cut in production. The company is predicting a 90 billion-yen ($1.2 billion) annual loss, compared to an earlier forecast for a 60 billion-yen of full-year profit.

Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) has announced that they will be paying $1.47 billion for Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson’s 50% stake in the Sony-Ericsson venture. Sony has bought Ericsson’s “five essential patent families” through this acquisition. This was an intellectual property agreement between the two companies. The acquisition will allow Sony to incorporate their mobile products into other offerings like PCs, TVs, tablets, etc. The venture was created 10 years ago and Sony wants to catch up with rivals through this acquisition. Going forward Sony plans to get very aggressive in the mobile market space. Below is the company press release:

Sony has shut down their servers after hackers tried to gain unauthorized access to 93,000 user accounts. The hackers tried to go after Sony Online Entertainment, The PlayStation Network, and Sony Online Entertainment. Sony chief information security officer Philip Reitinger said “a massive set of sign-in IDs and passwords against our network database, [and while] the overwhelming majority of the pairs resulted in failed matching attempts.” The hackers did have some success.

Sony has been teasing the public for a while about an upcoming tablet that they will be launching. Originally the code-name for the tablet was the Sony S1. Now rumored has it that the device will be officially called the Sony Tablet S. The specs of the Tablet S include: 9.4-inch (1280×768) screen, Android 3.1 operating system, integrated IR blaster, and dual cameras (3.0MP in the front, 5.0MP on the back). [Engadget]

This graphic from Thomson Reuters shows just who is suing whom in our current patent wars.