Cupertino, Calif. - Hoping to deflect further questions about his health, Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Monday issued a statement addressing his continuing weight loss over the past several months. [more..]

London - Japan's Sony is set for a restructuring that will see the closure of some of its electronics factories in Japan, and "sacred cow-slaying" measures that company sources told U.K.'s The Times they believe will "abolish or fundamentally alter many of Sony's long-established business practices." [more..]

White Plains, N.Y. - While overall U.S. music unit sales, which includes songs, albums, vinyl, music videos and ringtones, climbed 10.5% to 1.5 billion in 2008, total album sales -- including 10-song digital track groupings -- fell 8.5% to 428.4 million, according to a report from Nielsen SoundScan. [more..]

Beijing - The Chinese government has launched a campaign to "clean up a vulgar current on the Internet" that targets 19 companies, including search leaders Baidu and Google, Reuters reported, citing a report on the official news site China.com.cn. [more..]

Washington - The subsidy program offering coupons to Americans to help pay for converter boxes that ensure their televisions will continue to work after the digital TV transition next month is about to run out of funds, the Associated Press reported. [more..]

New York - Shortly after its announcement that it would end its five-year lawsuit campaign against individual file-swappers, comes news that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has severed ties with MediaSentry, a company it had used to track file-sharing and gather evidence of illegal downloads for its lawsuits, the Wall Street Journal reported. [more..]

Redmond, Wash. - Microsoft's 30GB Zune digital music player experienced a "leap year bug" that caused the device to freeze and become unusable, prompting the company to post a fix on the Zune website that suggests users let the battery drain completely before rebooting the device. [more..]

Los Angeles - Online social network Facebook has filed a lawsuit against Brazil's Power.com, a service that lets users access a range of social networking sites directly from Power.com, according to published reports. [more..]

Brookline, Mass. - Virtual worlds developer Worlds.com on Monday announced that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against video game developer NCsoft, whose multiplayer online titles include "City of Heroes" and "Guild Wars." [more..]

San Francisco - The Wikimedia Foundation has announced that it surpassed its $6 million fundraising goal to sustain the Wikipedia online encyclopedia. [more..]

New York - Herman Blackbook, a New York-based consulting firm, has announced the launch of its New Platforms Fund, which will provide small amounts of funding for developers of applications for platforms including Twitter, iPhone, Boxee and AppNexus. [more..]

Fleet, England - Mirics Semiconductor, a developer of chips that aim to bring "nomadic global broadcast reception to portable and PC platforms, announced on Monday that it has raised $7 million in third round of funding. [more..]

Palo Alto, Calif. - Superfish, a start-up developing a visual search engine, has raised $5.3 million in its second round of financing, PEHub.com reported, citing a regulatory filing. [more..]

Waltham, Mass. - Three telecom industry executives have launched a new communications industry investment firm called Genovation Capital, based in Waltham, Mass., which will focus on early-stage businesses. [more..]

San Francisco - With no initial public offerings (IPOs) and just $3.9 billion generated through venture-backed mergers and acquisitions during the fourth quarter, 2008 was the worst year in terms of liquidity for U.S. venture capitalists since the post-tech-bust doldrums of 2003, according to a new report from Dow Jones VentureSource. [more..]

Ann Arbor, Mich. - Media retail chain Borders on Monday announced that it has named Ron Marshall as its new president and CEO, replacing George Jones. [more..]

Englewood Cliffs, N.J. - Korea's LG Electronics on Monday announced that its new line of broadband-ready HDTVs will be able to instantly stream movies from online DVD rental service Netflix. [more..]

Seattle - Amazon.com on Monday that it plans to make downloads from its Amazon Video on Demand service accessible on the Roku Digital Video Player. [more..]

Los Angeles - DreamWorks Animation plans to give out some 150 million pairs of 3D glasses for a 3D Super Bowl telecast ad promoting its upcoming animated feature, "Monsters vs. Aliens," the Associated Press reported. [more..]

San Francisco - Dolby Laboratories is in talks with content providers on integrating its digital 3D technology into Blu-ray movies and video games, Reuters reports. [more..]

Los Angeles - Universal Music Group has partnered with fitness personality Jake Steinfeld ("Body by Jake") to launch what it says is the first "digital fitness music label." [more..]