Toshiba and South Korea's LG Electronics have signed an agreement to share their worldwide patents for optical disc products, the two companies said yesterday. The Japanese electronics maker announced an additional investment in computer chips.
The cross-licensing agreement between Toshiba and LG is expected to expedite product development and reduce development costs for optical products such as next-generation DVDs, the electronics makers said in a joint statement.
"Both companies expect mutual benefit in the field of optical discs-related products through this agreement," the statement quoted B.B. Hwang, president and CEO of LG's digital media division, as saying.
LG Electronics Inc. is South Korea's second largest electronics maker.
"Our goal is to reinforce our ability to bring competitive products to the rapidly growing optical media product marketplace at a faster rate," said Yoshihide Fujii, president and CEO of the digital media network company at Toshiba.
Also yesterday, Toshiba Corp said it will raise its capital investment plan for this fiscal year in computer chips to meet booming demand for flash-memory chips, used in portable music players, cell phones and digital cameras.
For the year through March 31, Toshiba now plans to spend ¥289 billion (US$2.4 billion) in its chips business -- the most the company has spent in the segment, the Tokyo-based manufacturer said in a statement.
Toshiba had planned to spend ¥225 billion (US$1.9 billion) in fiscal 2005. Most of the additional investment will boost production capacity at a plant in Japan, Toshiba said. The market is shifting to kinds of flash-memory that can store more music and image data, it said.
Last month, Toshiba said it will start selling high-definition DVD players in the US in March.
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