Hisense purchases Toshiba television business
Hisense Electric, a publicly listed subsidiary of Hisense Group, has entered into agreements to buy businesses including Toshiba television products, the brand and service operation.
In this transaction, on November 14, Hisense purchased 95 per cent of the shares in Toshiba Visual Solutions Corporation (“TVS”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation, for12.9 billion Japanese Yen (Bt3.76 billion). Toshiba will retain 5 per cent.
Hisense will obtain the TV businesses including production, research and development, and sales functions. Meanwhile, TVS will acquire a worldwide licence to use the Toshiba brand in connection with its visual solutions products and services for a period of 40 years, including in connection with TVS’s existing business partners operating in Europe, Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
TVS primarily operates the Toshiba TV business and various ancillary products, including commercial display and advertisement display products. TVS has two factories in Japan and hundreds of R&D employees, and has a significant IP portfolio related to the TV business, including patents related to TV image quality and acoustics.
Liu Hongxin, the CEO of Hisense Group, said that Hisense would optimise TVS’s resources in the R&D, supply chain and global sales channels. The companies would cooperate with and support each other in display technology, to provide competitive content operation services for smart TVs for the global market and to accomplish continuing and fast growth in Japanese market.
Hisense TV entered the Thailand market in 2016.