Samsung Buys Sony's Share of Joint LCD Production Plant
Samsung is now the sole owner of the S-LCD LCD production company.,
It seems we're not the only ones indulging in a little bit of holiday shopping. Sony has announced that it is selling its share of the joint LCD-production venture it signed into with Samsung seven years ago.
In a deal worth $600 million, Samsung will acquire Sony's portion of the venture, which the two parties signed into in 2004. The deal will see Samsung pay 1.08 trillion Korean won, or $935 million, to Sony and S-LCD will become a wholly-owned Samsung subsidiary.
Additionally, the two companies have entered into a new agreement for the supply and purchase of LCD panels that Sony says will ensure a 'flexible and steady' supply of LCDs from Samsung without the costs of operating the manufacturing facility. In exchange, Samsung expects to benefit from more flexibility, speed and efficiency in both production and business operations.
Sony says that as a result of the transaction, it is now expecting a non-cash impairment loss of roughly 66 billion yen, or $847 million, for the next fiscal quarter (ending March 2012). However, the company also said in its statement that this one-time loss will be canceled out by the annual savings made from off-loading its half of S-LCD. The current estimate of the yearly savings is 50 billion yen, or $642 million.
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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
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sony1978ak SONY selling its share of the joint LCD-production venture, and not long ago Sony Corp is to took over its mobile phone joint venture with Ericsson for 1.05 billion , whats SONY up too this days hmmmmm interesting.Reply -
kinggraves arachebumm monopoly is never good..Reply
What monopoly? There's still several other LCD manufacturers. Sony doesn't want to deal with the manufacturing, so they just contract the LCDs from Samsung. Of course, once the agreement has ended, Samsung could renegotiate the terms less favorably. They could also give Sony lower quality parts.
Sony's LCDs have been about the only thing I could recommend to people, Sony/Samsung LCD is usually pretty good. Now I guess I can just recommend Samsung. Kind of figures Sony would cheapen the quality of their LCDs down to the quality of everything else they produce. -
sony1978ak so you telling me sony wont be making LCD at home, instead they will buy them off Samsung and put them in there bravia TV? YES?Reply