Sharp to Invest &#36;1.9 Bln in LCD Plant
113516
Japan's Sharp Corp. plans to spend up to 200 billion yen (&#36;1.91 billion) to build a cutting-edge domestic plant to make liquid crystal display panels for flat-screen TVs, a business newspaper reported on Sunday.
469989
Hitachi, Canon and Panasonic have agreed to a wide-ranging collaboration that will see the three companies share the cost, burden and benefits of development and production of flat-panel displays.The move comes hot on the heels of a tie-up announced last week between Toshiba and Sharp and continues a major realignment in the fast-moving industry.Under the terms of the initial agreement Canon and Panasonic will each buy a 24.9 percent stake in Hitachi Displays, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi that already makes small and medium size LCD (liquid crystal display) panels. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to be completed before March 31, 2008.Hitachi said it hopes to accelerate the development of cutting-edge LCD technology through the alliance, which was announced on Tuesday. Competition in the flat-panel display industry is fierce and there is constant pressure on manufacturers to invest in new and efficient production technology to keep prices low and their screens technologically competitive. However a new LCD plant can easily cost US$1 billion [b] or more so companies are increasingly working together to share the costs.Meanwhile Canon said it hopes to shorten development time and gain a stable supply of LCD panels for its range of digital single-lens reflex cameras. It also hopes to develop new types of displays that can be used in its information management products.Panasonic, which has invested heavily in PDP (plasma display panel) technology for large-size flat-panel TVs and displays, will invest in a new production line at IPS Alpha Technology. The company is a joint-venture in which Canon and Toshiba also hold stakes although Toshiba is understood to be in talks concerning its exit from the venture. The new production line will help ensure a stable supply of medium-size LCD panels for Panasonic&#39;s TV up to about 40-inches in screen size, above which it uses PDPs.The wide-ranging collaboration and cooperation announced Tuesday is the first step of a series of planned moves that will eventually have Canon take control of Hitachi Displays and Panasonic take control of IPS Alpha Technology, the three companies said.In addition to the LCD alliance, Canon and Hitachi plan to work together on development of OLED (organic light emitting diode) displays. OLED is a fundamentally different technology from LCD and PDP and has been under development by many display makers for several years. It&#39;s viewed by some as a potential replacement for LCD technology because it provides a brighter and richer picture but a lot of work remains before it can be produced in sufficient volume and at a low enough price to compete with LCD.The world&#39;s first commercial OLED TV recently went on sale in Japan. Sony&#39;s XEL-1 has an 11-inch screen and is just 3-millimeters thick -- another advantage of OLED because a backlight unit isn&#39;t required -- but comes with an equally impressive &#165;200,000 (US$1,750) price tag.Last week Toshiba and Sharp announced plans to work together in the flat-panel display business. Toshiba will buy from Sharp screens for its 32-inch and larger TV sets while Sharp will buy from Toshiba the chips used in its TVs. The cooperation will begin from April next year and will slowly build towards 2010 when two goals are expected to be reached: Sharp will supply Toshiba with 40 percent of its LCD modules and Toshiba will sell to Sharp 50 percent of the chips it needs, they said.Sony and Samsung Electronics have been cooperating in LCD panel production for sometime and jointly own S-LCD, a manufacturer of cutting-edge LCD panels based in South Korea.&#160;
748571
Japanese chips-to-computers conglomerate Fujitsu Ltd. said on Sunday it is in talks with Sharp Corp., the world's largest maker of LCD televisions, to sell its loss-making LCD panel operations.
584281
Media conglomerate News Corp. said Tuesday that it will invest more than $1 billion, or 600 million pounds, to build new printing plants for its British newspaper division News International Ltd.
477313
Sharp Corp. (6753.T), the world&#39;s  third-largest LCD TV maker, said on Friday it would likely  build a new LCD panel plant in Sakai, Osaka prefecture, and the  final decision will be made by the end of July.
33727
By Kyodo News International, Tokyo  Sep. 19--OSAKA -- Sharp Corp. on Tuesday gave the media a preview of its  new factory for giant liquid crystal displays, seeking to seize a bigger share  in the overseas TV market with products equipped with LCDs made at the  state-of-the-art plant.
682982
Sharp Corp., which helped propel the market for liquid-crystal display televisions, is no longer the world's leading maker of the flat-panel TVs, according to two market research companies.
101934
Japanese consumer electronics maker Sharp  Corp.  said on Tuesday it has started the commercial  production of blue laser diodes, taking aim at a market with  strong growth potential.
102148
In an effort to end the industry-wide shortage of blue laser diodes that occurred as a result of staggering underproduction by Sony and Nichia, the world's first two suppliers, Sharp Electronics today said it's ready to step up the mass production of diodes it's been making on a trial basis since just last month.
328329
U.S.-based chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc. said it will spend about &#36;300 million over the next three years to increase output at its facilities in the northern Philippines.
254528
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. said today it would invest $273 million (290 billion won) to begin construction of Line 7-2 TFT-LCD fab line at its Tanjeong, Korea flat panel display facility.
706268
(InfoWorld) - Sharp raised the bar for high-definition LCD (liquid crystal display) screens this week with the demonstration of 64-inch prototype with a resolution of 4,096 pixels by 2,160 pixels -- four times higher than current high-definition displays. The screen, the first such prototype developed by Sharp, was on display this week at the Ceatec exhibition in Chiba, Japan. While projection display systems have been developed that can match the resolution of Sharp's latest prototype, this is the first time that an LCD has been produced with a resolution this high, said Toshiyuki Matsumara, a company spokesman. The Sharp prototype's resolution tops that of a screen demonstrated last year by Taiwan's Chi Mei Optoelectronics. That display, unveiled last year in Yokohama, Japan, measured 56 inches across the diagonal and had a resolution of 3,840 pixels by 2,160 pixels. Sharp developed the prototype display to keep up with changes in the motion picture industry, Matsumara said. As studios move from film to digital media, resolutions will go higher and displays will need to keep up, he said. Prototype display technologies have been a highlight of this year's Ceatec exhibition. Toshiba Corp. and Canon Inc. demonstrated a television with a 55-inch SED (surface-conduction electron-emitter display) screen. The screens, which offer higher contrast and lower power consumption than other flat-panel technologies, will enter production next year. Japan's public broadcaster, Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), showed a system it calls Super Hi-Vision that offers a 16:9 aspect ratio picture with 4,320 horizontal lines -- double that of Sharp's prototype. The NHK system, which has been demonstrated before, is still under development.
159852
Plan to buy each others' kit Sharp and Toshiba have agreed to work together on the development of their LCD TV product lines.â¦
201558
Toshiba Corp  said on Friday it  would buy large liquid crystal display (LCD) panels from Sharp  Corp  as part of an alliance between the two  electronics makers in the LCD business.
434881
Japan&#39;s Sharp Corp. plans to spend up to 200 billion yen ($1.91 billion) to build a cutting-edge domestic plant to make liquid crystal display panels for flat-screen TVs, a business newspaper reported on Sunday.
432073
Infineon on Wednesday said it would invest $1bn in a new semiconductor plant in Malaysia as it stepped up production of chips used in automotive and industrial power applications.
190830
Japanese manufacturer Sharp on Wednesday demonstrated a new LCD flat panel that allows for three different images to be viewed on a screen depending on the angle. The company introduced a dual-view LCD last July, which is already being used in cars.