Sony, Sharp 10G LCD production plant deal officially official

Economic difficulties made things more complicated than expected, but Sharp and Sony have finally inked an agreement on a billion dollar joint venture that will see Sony initially taking a 7% stake later this year, rising to 34% by the end of April 2011. The key here is for Sony to get access to the production, while Sharp sees this as just the first of several deals that will allow it to sell half of the 13 million 42-inch TVs produced annually to other manufacturers. The Nikkei says deals with Toshiba and European manufacturers are on the table, so despite what your next TV says on the front, there's a decent chance it originates at the Sakai plant scheduled to open in October.

Read - AV Watch
Read - Nikkei

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 1st 2009 2:28PM]

Indirectly, this is why Pioneer pulled the plug on their TV's. Look at the volume of displays they sell (not a lot), and look at the cost of a new factory. They did try to partner with other people for production, but those partnerships fell through. So it was either spend billions on a factory (not going to happen), or partner with someone else (those deals fell apart).

:-(

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 6th 2009 10:30AM]

Why did the panasonic deal fall apart?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 6th 2009 2:09PM]

One obvious question -- when is this fab supposed to begin actual production?