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Sony to merge LCD display ventures

Sony Corp, the world's second-biggest maker of consumer electronics, said it will combine two liquid-crystal display ventures that the company set up with an affiliate of Toyota Motor Corp.

ST Liquid Crystal Display Corp and ST Mobile Display Corp, Sony's ventures with Toyota Industries Corp, will be merged on Dec. 1, a joint statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange said yesterday.

The two ventures have combined production capacity of 65,000 panels a month, mainly for use in smaller screens such as mobile-phone handsets.

Tokyo-based Sony will hold 86 percent of the new company, while Toyota Industries, based in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture, will own the rest, the statement said. The new company will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony by March 31, 2009.

Separately, Hitachi Ltd's venture with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co and Toshiba Corp will invest about ?9 billion (US$78 million) to increase production of liquid-crystal displays and meet demand for slim TV screens.

IPS Alpha Technology Ltd, 50 percent controlled by Hitachi, said on Tuesday it would make the investment in the quarter starting July next year.

The spending will increase annual production capacity of the panels to about 6 million units from 5 million, IPS Alpha, based in Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, said by fax.

Matsushita and Hitachi plan to increase focus on LCD TVs as sales of such models will probably outpace plasma ones by five to one next year, DisplaySearch estimates showed. Matsushita last month began selling its largest LCD TV model, while Hitachi will stop production at a plasma factory in Japan.

"Demand for slim televisions is surging worldwide in part because of the Beijing Olympics next year," IPS Alpha said.

Matsushita, the world's biggest maker of plasma displays, holds a 30 percent stake in the venture, while Toshiba has a 15 percent share.
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