Turnaround at Sharp

Read this however you want to... I don't see any way to look at this deal as a negative for MicroVision

Wall Street Journal
BigStory.AP

Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., is buying a 66 percent share in Sharp for 389 billion yen ($3.5 billion) in the first foreign takeover of a major Japanese electronics company. A giant in contract manufacturing, Foxconn assembles Apple iPhones and other products for name-brand companies.

"I see us as a catalyst for change," Foxconn founder and chairman Terry Gou said at a news conference following the ceremony. "If we cannot drive change in Sharp, our global competitors will eat us alive."

Sharp, a leader in LCD technology and a maker of flat-screen televisions and smart appliances, has been hit hard by fierce price competition for LCD displays.

Kozo Takahashi, the president of the 104-year-old Japanese company, said the infusion of capital from Foxconn would improve Sharp's financial situation and allow it to "invest in the new growth initiatives that were suppressed due to the financial challenges we have been facing in recent years."

Both Takahashi and Gou paid tribute to Sharp's history of innovation, which includes the world's first LCD calculator, and said they would seek to marry it with the production and supply chain capabilities that Foxconn has developed in the intensely competitive field of electronics manufacturing.

"My direction of turnaround is clear," Gou said. "We will focus on helping Sharp to transform its technology into products in a speedy and cost-competitive way with high quality."