Sony, Hitachi, Toshiba merge, sell phone display businesses

Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba are to sell off their respective mobile display production operations.

The three companies' mobile display businesses will be merged into a new entity, Japan Display, to be majority owned by Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ).

INCJ is also buying one of Panasonic's factories for producing small- to medium-sized LCDs for Japan Display to use.

INCJ will own 70 per cent of Japan Display, for which it is paying Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba a combined ¥200 billion (£1.6bn). The other three will each get ten per cent of JD's shares.

INCJ describes itself as "a public-private partnership that provides financial, technological and management support for next-generation businesses". Essentially, it's a tool the Japanese government uses to provide funding for local industry, but it also steered by many of the county's biggest companies and banks. ®