Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Japan's largest consumer electronics maker, plans to sell its Victor Co of Japan Ltd unit to Kenwood Corp, a Japanese car navigation equipment maker, people familiar with the matter said.
The three companies are discussing final terms on the sale after unprofitable Victor agreed to a merger with Kenwood, two people familiar with the issue told Bloomberg News, asking not to be identified because the talks are confidential.
Victor has a market value of ?100 billion (US$807 million) based on its last closing price on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Officials at the companies declined to comment on the sale.
Matsushita, which owns more than 52 percent of Victor, has been seeking a buyer of the company for several years.
Victor is forecasting a fourth straight loss this year and Kenwood has previously been among candidates to buy the company.
JVC brand
With the buyout, Tokyo-based Kenwood will gain the JVC brand for car audio and navigation systems and home-use stereo sets.
Takaaki Nose, a Kenwood spokesman, and Toshiya Ogata, a Victor spokesman, said a decision hasn't been made on the issue.
"Regarding our stake in Victor, we are considering every conceivable option to secure Victor's independence which would raise our corporate value," said Akira Kadota, a Matsushita spokesman. He wouldn't comment on the sale, which was reported by the Nikkei Shimbun earlier.
Integration
Matsushita and Kenwood are discussing a plan to form a holding company, under which Kenwood and Victor will integrate their operations, the people said. Matsushita may sell its 52.7 percent stake in JVC to the holding company, they said.
Matsushita's holding of 133.23 million Victor shares is worth ?52.6 billion based on Victor's closing share price on Friday of ?395 in Tokyo.
Yokohama-based Victor, founded in 1927, introduced the world's first home video recorder with the VHS format in 1976, which drove Sony Corp's Betamax video standard out of the market.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last