Sharp Corp. and Sony Corp. (NYSE:SNE) have agreed on plans for
a long-anticipate LCD joint venture. The Japanese electronics makers have been contemplating the venture for well over a year, but until now, no deal had been finalized.
Here are the details:
Sharp will in October begin operating a Sakai City, Japan-based LCD manufacturing plant as a subsidiary to be called Sharp Display Products Corp. Sony in March will buy in with an initial $105 million investment. Plans call for Sony to eventually own a 34% stake in the $4 billion venture. In return, Sony will receive LCDs from Sharp-operated facilities.
The deal is the latest in a series of transactions that are
consolidating the Japanese electronics sector. Already this year, Sharp and Pioneer Corp.
merged their optical disc units to create a Blu-ray disc JV slated to begin operating in October, and Panasonic Corp. sold its 40% stake in an LCD JV to Toshiba, which had plans to acquire Fujitsu Ltd.'s hard-disk drive operations. - Suzanne Stevens
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