Both Panasonic ZS50 and Sony S980 have 12.0 MP resolution sensors but Panasonic ZS50's sensor is (1/2. ) and Sony S980's sensor is 1/2.3-inch (6.17 x 4.55 mm ).
Since Sony S980's has a larger sensor area with the same resolution, this means that it also has a larger pixel area hence better light collecting capacity for a given aperture compared to Panasonic ZS50.
Below you can see the ZS50 and S980 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Sony S980 has a infx Larger sensor area than Panasonic ZS50. Larger sensors give photographer more control on the depth of field and blurry background compared to smaller sensor when shot in same focal length and aperture.