Samsung Electronics Sells Stake In Sharp -- WSJ
September 16 2016 - 3:03AM
Dow Jones News
By Takashi Mochizuki
TOKYO -- Samsung Electronics Co. said it had sold its stake in
Japan's Sharp Corp. as the South Korean conglomerate restructures
its portfolio.
The Korean technology major incurred a small loss from the sale
earlier this month of its stake in the Osaka-based electronics
company, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday. In 2013,
Samsung had snapped up a roughly 3% stake in Sharp for Yen10.3
billion ($101 million).
Samsung declined to comment on who acquired its holdings of
Sharp shares. "We plan to continue our cooperation with Sharp," the
company said in a statement.
The sale stemmed from Samsung's recent decision to sell its
printer unit to U.S.-based HP Inc., the person said, because the
aim of the investment had been to gain Sharp's expertise in copier
technology, particularly its patents, to expand that business. Such
intellectual property is crucial to survival in the industry, where
market leaders cross-license their patents to keep competition in
check.
Samsung's hopes of gaining Sharp's copier technology were
stymied by other industry leaders that tried to block the South
Korean company's entry into the market, the person said.
The decision to sell the stake was also influenced by the
completion of Foxconn Technology Group's acquisition of Sharp last
month, the person said. Taiwan's Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai
Precision Industry Co., is Samsung rival Apple Inc.'s main
assembler of iPhones. Foxconn also assembles consumer electronics
for Samsung and other companies.
A Sharp spokesman Thursday said "we are not in a position to
make any comments on this matter."
Write to Takashi Mochizuki at takashi.mochizuki@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 16, 2016 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)
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