joint ventures
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Fujitsu buys out Toshiba's stake in mobile joint venture, division now called Fujitsu Mobile Communications
April 2, 2012: a great day to officially wash your hands of an unprofitable business. On the heels of Philips stuffing its TV biz into a joint venture, Fujitsu announced it has bought out Toshiba's stake in Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications (just like we knew it would). Fujitsu already had a controlling 80.1 percent interest in the company, so this doesn't exactly mark a seismic change in management. Still, with that final 19.9 percent it's now a fully owned subsidiary of the Fujitsu Group, and has been rechristened Fujitsu Mobile Communications. We've got the PR below, but unless you want to know how much capital the division has (¥450 million, to be exact), we think we've got you covered on the facts.
Philips transfers TV business to a joint venture with TPV Technology, TPV takes the controlling stake
It took almost exactly a year, but Philips is finally free of its pesky, money-losing TV problem. As planned, the company transferred its television business into a joint venture with Hong Kong-based TPV Technology called TP Vision -- an arrangement that endows TPV with a controlling 70 percent stake. (Philips will still receive royalties on top of whatever it earns through this venture, and plans to sell Philips-branded sets in the US through a separate partnership with Funai.) Though the deal was first detailed a year ago, Philips only announced today that the transaction had closed. Now that it has, the newly formed company will produce Philips-branded TVs in a bid to make it one of the "top three players," according to TP Vision chief Maarten de Vries. As you'd expect, all of the 3,300 employees that previously fell under Philips' television division will now be in the employ of TP Vision, and Philips' various manufacturing sites have been transferred over too. All of that and a healthy dose of rah-rah in the full PR below.
Kodak, Martha Stewart partner on product line
Now that America's favorite homemaker/inside trader is back to full steam following her brief incarceration, it seems that we may be in for another wave of branded products reminiscent of her previous assault on K-Mart shelves, as Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Kodak have just announced plans to jointly release a line of personalized photo swag. Available in late September from both companies' websites, the MSLO-designed lineup will include such exciting products as photo books, stationary, calendars, stickers, and occasion-specific cards that customers can slap their uploaded photos onto -- certainly nothing new, but now the process comes with Ms Stewart's coveted seal of approval. The multi-year agreement means that we can expect the customizable offerings to expand into other categories such as food and gardening, and it looks like Martha herself is quite confident that the venture will succeed, as she reportedly bulked up her portfolio with more Kodak and MSLO stock just hours before the deal was announced.[Via DigitalCameraInfo, photo courtesy of BusinessWire]
