Sharp and Toshiba to Form Alliance in LCD and Semiconductor Businesses

Sharp Corporation and Toshiba Corporation announced today that the two companies have agreed to collaborate closely in LCDs, a move that is expected to enhance the companies’ corporate value, profitability and global competitiveness. The alliance will allow each company to make full and effective use of its respective strengths and resources, particularly Sharp’s capabilities in LCDs and Toshiba’s expertise in advanced semiconductors.

Sharp and Toshiba will initiate the collaborative partnership in fiscal year 2008, starting with an expansion of reciprocal procurement – Sharp’s procurement of system LSIs for LCDs from Toshiba, and Toshiba’s procurement of Sharp’s LCD modules for TVs of 32 inches and larger. Through the program, Sharp aims to satisfy about 50 percent of its total demand for system LSIs for TVs in fiscal year 2010, while Toshiba targets meeting 40 percent of its demand for LCD modules in the same year.

The global market for LCD TVs is growing at a brisk pace, a trend expected to continue in coming years. While various types of displays are being brought to market, Sharp is channeling its resources into developing LCD TVs characterized by thin lines, light weight, high resolution images and a long lifetime, and into achieving progressive advances in reducing power consumption.

System LSIs for TVs are increasingly required to support advanced functions and higher levels of performance alongside their core role of image processing. As TVs shift to higher levels of resolution, Toshiba’s system LSIs for TVs deliver the company’s advanced expertise and achievements in image processing in products that meet the most exacting requirements of major TV set manufacturers.

By bringing together their key, world class technologies, Sharp and Toshiba will promote business advances through development of differentiated products. Each company aims to secure a leading position in the LCD TV market, and to reinforce its capabilities in LCDs and semiconductors, by overcoming increasingly intense global competition.

About Sharp
Sharp Corporation is a worldwide developer of innovative products and core technologies that play a key role in shaping the future of electronics. As a leader in liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and digital technologies, Sharp offers one of the broadest and most advanced lines of consumer electronics, information products and electronic components, while also creating new network businesses.

Sharp Corporation employs about 57,600 people in the world (as of October 31, 2007) and recorded consolidated annual sales of 3,127,771 million yen for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007. For more information, please visit Sharp’s Web site at http://sharp-world.com/index.html.

About Toshiba
Toshiba is a world leader and innovator in pioneering high technology, a diversified manufacturer and marketer of advanced electronic and electrical products spanning information & communications equipment and systems; digital consumer products; electronic devices and components; power systems, including nuclear energy; industrial and social infrastructure systems; and home appliances. Toshiba was founded in 1875, and today operates a global network of more than 670 companies, with over 191,000 employees worldwide and annual sales surpassing US$60 billion. Visit Toshiba’s web site at http://www.toshiba.co.jp/index.htm.