Japanese home appliance giants Sony and NEC announced recently that they concluded a basic agreement to merge their optical-disc drive businesses into a new company in April next year. It is aimed at improving their business efficiency through the integration of bilateral business and technical resources to cope with plunging product prices according to the Economic Information Daily.

They will hand over their optical-disc drive businesses to a new company. Sony will hold a 55 percent stake in the venture while the NEC will hold 45 per cent. Sony will transfer its optical technology to the new company while the NEC will hand over the technology of integrated circuit. Both sides are expected to improve their product competitiveness through the integration.

In terms of the next generation DVD technological specifications, Sony belongs to the BD Group while the NEC supports HD. How to unify the DVD technical specifications is waiting to be solved. Since Sony holds 55 per cent stake, Japanese experts believe the new company will likely become a BD Group member in the end.

By People's Daily Online