Matsushita to sell JVC to Kenwood?

Dizamn, chalk this up to buyouts we didn't see coming; reports are starting to hit the wires that Matushita (aka Panasonic), which owns the controlling share (52.4%) of Victor Company of Japan (aka JVC) is apparently considering selling the unit to Kenwood. Although talks have supposedly been ongoing since earlier this month, Matsushita is apparently refusing to comment. Naw, probably won't affect you and your general buying habits -- it's not like JVC would be going to D&M to be dismantled for its IP -- we just thought you might like to know.

Read - Matsushita reportedly in talks with Kenwood
Read - "No comment."

[EatingPie @ Dec 23rd 2006 8:17PM]

I'm not absolutely positive about this, but I believe JVC owns the patent on VHS. At the very least, they claim they invented it.

With the downfall of VHS invetable (DVD players outnumbering VHS counterparts and all), I imagine now is the time to unload the property... while it's still viable.

-Pie

[par @ Dec 23rd 2006 9:56PM]

Haven't 20 years passed since VHS was conceived? All VHS patents have probably expired by now.

[Shibathedog @ Dec 23rd 2006 10:59PM]

who cares, JVC cuts corners on all their products, i hope they eventually dissolve the company.

Panasonic probably just released any products they knew where crap under the JVC name in order to not tarnish the Panasonic name (Not hating on Panasonic though, probably one of the best electronic companies, JVC on the other hand...)

[CaptCaveman @ Dec 23rd 2006 11:12PM]

Are you nuts. Crap products?!
I own a set of JVC surround sound speakers with a sub woofer and... Wait, bad example.

Oh, yeah! When I was shopping for a new receiver a few months ago. I ran across a couple of JVC receivers and... um, wait that wasn't good either.

Um, what were we talking about again. Oh yeah. The Wii is a great console isn't it?

[CaptCaveman @ Dec 23rd 2006 11:15PM]

BTW. I really do own a set of JVC speakers.

I was young, didn't have a lot of money, and didn't know what I was doing. Honest.

[Dennis @ Dec 24th 2006 3:57AM]

you should've just gone in to porn instead... then bought some decent bose speakers...

[theinvisiblemooseman @ Dec 25th 2006 4:31PM]

..."decent" and "bose" do not belong in the same sentence.

[Gary @ Dec 25th 2006 7:19PM]

Your speakers Blow?

Thats Too Bad.....



Click ;)

[Shibathedog @ Dec 24th 2006 10:46AM]

eww not Bose though, if you look at the way speakers work its pretty plain and simple why Bose is a bad idea. Its all a bunch of weird mixing and effects to try and get it to sound good through ass speakers.

Get some really good speakers instead, like Klipsch, B&W, Paradigm, even Infinitys.

[John Hollies @ Dec 24th 2006 11:09PM]

Overall, this might not be so good for the CE industry or the consumer.

JVC has really done a good job even being as small of a company as they are.

Besides inventing VHS, JVC hold patents in MiniDV Camcorders, MPEG technology, DVD, and Hard Drive Camcorders. JVC was the first company to make LCOS work for TV and now Sony uses the same technology for SXRD...before JVC succeeded with LCOS, Sony was using crappy LCD for their PTV's.

Didn't I just read that Sony had to recall like millions of Laptop batteries....? Samsung is being sued for price fixing by the United States, and recently lost a $300 million dollar law suit for Price Fixing Memory chips.

JVC TV’s on the other hand, consistently get high marks from Consumer reports for both picture quality performance and low rate of repair.

Too bad JVC doesn’t not have $80 million to dump into advertising like Samsung and Sony...then people would think differently. JVC is an honorable company that deserves a better fate.
.

[Omar @ Dec 25th 2006 4:02PM]

@ John Hollies.

Not so quick there on the LCOS theory buddy. Sony's SXRD was shown to the press (as a working product) well before LCOS, which incidentally started life in the Netherlands under the Philips brand before being shifted to JVC once initial development had been completed. ;-) Geeky, but true!

[Vinylvision @ Dec 25th 2006 4:19PM]

So what is so great about Kenwood?

[John Hollies @ Dec 26th 2006 10:17AM]

Omar @

My understanding is that JVC developed the technology with Hughes Aircraft for Flight Simulators in the late 90's. ILA Technology (basically analog system)

Eventually JVC bought out Hughes and began to find a way to use this (ILA Technology) with a digital signal, the best solution was with an LCOS chip, but at the time they yield was terrible making the chips and the sets unaffordable.

Many companies tried and failed with LCOS - Phillips, Intel, Toshiba, and RCA. JVC kept plying with it and in April of 2004 JVC introduced to the masses an affordable LCOS variant called HDILA. By Sept 2004 Sony introduced a 70” SXRD called it QUALIA. Retail was $13,000.

Sony did not enter the market with an affordable LCOS PTV until Aug of 2005…over a year after JVC…probably about the time it took to reverse engineer it.

[Ron @ Jan 4th 2007 11:50PM]

JVC also owns patents on MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. How many devices and services today rely on these compression standards?

I personally respect JVC as one of the world's most significant 'inventors'.

JVC will likely be better off without its competitor being a majority shareholder. In-fact better without any majority repressing them.

[Pfedro @ Jan 5th 2007 2:03PM]

I am never buying anything from JVC again. I bought a mini Hi-fi system and it broke down within 2 months. I bought a 5 disc DVD player and it shows little streaks from time to time even with original DVDs and even after I clean the lens.

[mike @ Feb 20th 2007 2:03PM]

any updates on this .im very interested in this merge.i work for a big box retailler in car audio so i want to see what changes will bring...thx

[Mahesh @ Feb 22nd 2007 8:09AM]

I am intrested