Foxconn acquires majority Sharp: LCD panels and retail products in its future

Foxconn has announced the completion of the input operation in the capital with a majority share of the Japanese Sharp, a company specializing in the production of LCD panels as well as the marks appearing with various products in the consumer electronics industry. The acquisition agreement comes after a long-standing partnership, during which the two companies have collaborated on various products and Foxconn has first detected some factories Sharp and later entered in the share capital of the company.

Foxconn has agreed to pay a sum of approximately 3.5 billion US dollars for 66% of Sharp shares. Foxconn is also committed to the future to pay a sum of just under 900 million US dollars to get a further block of shares by a shareholder Sharp bank, as well as cope with the exposures of Sharp against this bank . Foxconn will also have to pay around 4.53 billion dollars in Mizuho Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, an important figure that makes us understand how the expenditure to which Foxconn will meet to complete the acquisition of Sharp will be overall very high.

All this, however, will allow Foxconn to have an important production capacity in the production of LCD screens, and in the future to be able to invest in Sharp for the production of OLED panels. Foxconn in this way will better meet the needs of its customers, companies that devolved to Foxconn production of its consumer electronics products.

The purchase of Sharp will also allow Foxconn to enter directly into the consumer electronics market, being able to exploit a well-known and recognized brand. It is a new approach to the Chinese company, which could thus make better use of its huge production capacity by working directly with its products and in this way trying to take advantage of the higher margins achieved in direct sales. Use the Sharp brand would allow Foxconn to better position these solutions in terms of perception by the public, maintaining its Foxconn brand behind the scenes such as the one company that builds for others most consumer electronics devices on the market.