December 26, 2007	Wednesday	Zilhaj 15, 1428

TOKYO: Japanese electronic makers Matsushita, Canon and Hitachi said on Tuesday they will form an alliance in liquid crystal panels in the latest tie-up in the lucrative but cutthroat sector.

The companies said Canon Inc and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd will each take 24.9 per cent stake of Hitachi Ltd unit Hitachi Displays Ltd by the end of March.

Details of the deal will be decided later, but the agreement should help the companies meet the increasing demand for LCD panels while keeping cost down and maintaining steady supply, a joint statement said.

The three firms “reached a basic agreement on a comprehensive alliance aimed at reinforcing and growing the liquid crystal display panel business and technologies,” it said.

Hitachi hoped to beef up development of cutting-edge LCD panels through the agreement and to promote sales of LCD television sets.

Canon would gain stable supplies of LCD panels, which should help the company cut the time necessary to develop new products, the statement said.

Matsushita, known for its Panasonic brand, also hopes to secure stable supplies of LCDs, although it will maintain its main focus on plasma display panels (PDP) for its line of thin television sets.

An earlier report in the Nikkei business daily said the three companies also planned to invest in a 300 billion-yen ($2.6 billion) new factory to make small and midsized LCD panels.

The three-way deal comes as the Japanese electronics industry goes through realignment amid increasingly fierce competition.—AFP

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TOKYO: Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc is considering a tie-up with Google Inc, adopting the Web giant’s search and email features in its mobile phone Internet service, company sources said on Tuesday.

The move marks a strategic shift for Japan’s largest wireless operator by seeking a partner, as the firm has been lagging behind much smaller rivals in luring new subscribers in recent months.

For Google, the alliance will provide access to DoCoMo’s 48million users of “i-mode” mobile phone Internet service as it tries to expand its presence in Japan, where Yahoo Japan Corp leads the Web search market.

The alliance may eventually lead to the development of newfunctions and handsets, the sources said.—Reuters