***Electronics Makers Set Up Joint Venture for LCD Development
(February 6)
According to Kyodo News International, Japan's six electronics
makers said they have established a joint venture to develop
next-generation liquid crystal displays (LCDs) together. The
venture, Advanced LCD Technologies Development Center (ALTEDEC)
aims to conduct research and development into energy-efficient
manufacturing technology to produce high-performance active
matrix LCDs and next-generation basic technology to create
advanced LCDs. The six are Sharp, Toshiba, NEC, Hitachi,
Matsushita Electric Industrial and Mitsubishi Electric.
ALTEDEC, based in Yokohama, is capitalized at 50.4 million yen,
of which the six firms invested equal parts. It is eventually to
have some 50 engineers from the parent companies. Fumiaki Funada,
a senior official at Sharp, has assumed the presidency of the
company.
Wave Issue 0108 2/8/01 Article 7-02