A report in the Nikkei Japanese business journal Friday claims that "Pioneer Corp. will pull the plug on its loss-ridden television business and shift its DVD player operations to a new venture with Sharp Corp. in a sweeping overhaul," according to the paper.

Late Friday, a spokeswoman for Pioneer's USA businesses did not specifically confirm or deny the report.

"As a matter of policy, we cannot comment on rumors or speculation," she said in an email. "As you know, we have publicly announced that we are actively evaluating our business. We started announcing changes in March, 2008 to increase efficiencies of our business operations. We are still in that process but do not have any further announcements at this time."

This seems eerily similar to what occurred a week ago with NEC Display, and the somewhat cryptic comment that NEC was exiting LCD-related businesses. As it was, NEC Display is alive and well, although NEC Display also didn't confirm that information until the following Monday: such is the way that Japanese conglomerates interact with their overseas subsidiaries.

Unbeknownst to us, Pioneer may have already tipped its direction with its CES launch plans: some Blu-ray players, but no LCD TVs. In May, exited the plasma panel business, agreeing to source panels from Matsushita, now renamed Panasonic.