“In a bid to streamline its unprofitable television business, Sony said Monday that it would sell its stake in its flat-panel screen venture with Samsung Electronics, cutting its production capacity at a time when outsourcing has become the norm for manufacturers,” Hiroko Tabuchi reports for The New York Times.
“ony, which makes the Bravia liquid-crystal-display televisions, said in a statement that it would sell its stake of nearly 50 percent in the jointly owned manufacturer, S-LCD, to Samsung, of South Korea, for 1.08 trillion won, or $935 million,” Tabuchi reports. “Sony’s exit from the joint venture, which was set up in Tangjeong, South Korea, in April 2004, will let it switch to less-expensive outsourcing options that may help it to resuscitate its struggling television business. The only other LCD panels Sony manufactures are through its joint venture with Sharp, in which Sony owns a 7 percent stake.”
Tabuchi reports, “Sony ‘aims to secure a flexible and steady supply of LCD panels from Samsung, based on market prices and without the responsibility and costs of operating a manufacturing facility,’ it said in the statement. Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics, the world leader in flat-panel televisions, would gain freer rein in producing its next-generation displays by taking control of S-LCD, Samsung said in a regulatory filing that its board had approved the plan Monday.”
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