It sold a 38 percent stake in the Sakai plant to Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd that year. These big outlays, combined with slower-than-expected sales, pushed Sharp to seek a 360 billion yen bail-out from its banks in 2012. It followed later with a 430 billion yen investment in a new LCD plant in Sakai, near Osaka, which started operating in 2009. LCD panel prices were already falling by around 30 percent year-on-year at the time, according to market research, but Sharp sought economies of scale to gain an edge over its rivals. The decline at Sharp can be traced back to a decade ago, according to some industry experts, when the company spent hundreds of billions of yen to expand its LCD manufacturing facilities in Kameyama, a rural city in central Japan. Sales of TVs fell around 10 percent in the year through March.
We want to continue being the kind of company that’s at the forefront of change,” Chief Technology Officer Shigeaki Mizushima told reporters in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where he presented plans for new high-end TVs costing close to 1 million yen ($8,344). “Sharp was the first to make radios in Japan and the first to mass produce TVs here. device maker diversified its supply chain amid longstanding concerns over Sharp’s prospects.Ĭritics say Sharp often over-estimated its market position, became complacent and over-invested in manufacturing capacity as liquid crystal display (LCD) prices were tumbling.Īnalysts say a merger with Japan Display would make sense, but insiders at Sharp - named after a mechanical pencil invented by its founder over a century ago - have scoffed at the idea of a deal with what they consider a lesser player.Įven as the losses grew and debts piled up, and it was clear Sharp would need more help from banks, executives touted the company’s proud history. Once among the top display suppliers to Apple Inc, Sharp has been pushed aside by the likes of LG Display and Japan Display, as the U.S. It also struggled to persuade customers to pay a premium for its high-end “IGZO” display technology, which features high resolution and low energy consumption, as rivals quickly outmanoeuvred it with competitive technology. It was a pattern repeated over years of drift as Sharp, confident in its technological superiority, found itself blindsided by rivals. Within months, however, Sharp found it was sharing Xiaomi revenue as upstart rival Japan Display also struck a deal to supply the Chinese firm with its “in-cell” displays. Loss-making Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp intends to reduce its capital to 500 million yen ($4.2 million) from more than 120 billion yen, compared with a previously planned target of 100 million yen, a source with knowledge of the move said. A woman walks past display showing a logo of Sharp Corp in Tokyo, Japan, May 13, 2015.
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