Hitachi, Matsushita, Toshiba to form LCD venture

Three of Japan's largest electronics companies, Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., have reached a basic agreement to create a joint venture to manufacture and sell LCD (liquid crystal display) panels for televisions, the companies said Tuesday.

Plans call for the new company to begin operations in January 2005 and for Hitachi to own 50 percent of its shares. Matsushita, which is better known by its Panasonic brand name, and Toshiba will each own equal shares of up to 25 percent. The three companies are planning to solicit additional investment from other companies up to a total of 8 percent of the as-yet-unnamed company, they said at a Tokyo news conference.

Behind the formation of the new company is the launch of digital terrestrial television in Japan and high-definition TV in the U.S. and China, said Kunio Nakamura, president of Matsushita, at the news conference.

"People want to watch TV on big screens with high quality and high definition, and the need for this kind of TV is going to grow," he said.

The venture will construct a TFT (thin-film transistor) LCD production line at the Mobara factory of Hitachi Displays Ltd. in Chiba, east of Tokyo, at an estimated cost of