Shares eased on the Nikkei report Thursday, which said Toshiba's current
operating profit forecast would decline from over $2.8 billion currently,
after ceding in the technology format war to the Sony-led Blu-ray camp

COMPANY ASIA: Toshiba will likely see losses of almost $1 billion after pulling the plug
on the HD DVD format technology last month, Japan's leading financial daily
reported on Thursday.

Shares eased on the Nikkei report, which said Toshiba's current operating
profit forecast would decline from over $2.8 billion currently.

Some Japanese retailers are already offering to swap HD DVD players with
rival format Blu-ray players for an exchange fee.

Toshiba, the world's No.2  flash memory chip maker, has also been hit by a
decline in NAND and Liquid Crystal Display prices.

In a separate interview with Reuters, Microsoft said it was not in talks
with Sony, which led the winning Blu-ray DVD format camp, about use in its
Xbox 360 video game console.

Microsoft stopped making HD-DVD add on for its Xbox 360, but poured cold
water on speculation that the high-def Blu-ray technology would be supported
after Toshiba and other industry backers' exited in February.

The U.S. giant says it plans to invest further in its Xbox Live online
service, already allowing users rent high-definition movies.

Dan Sloan