Building on an alliance started last year, Victor Company of Japan (better known as JVC) and Kenwood Corp. have integrated management and established JVC Kenwood Holdings Inc.

The new company took the place of both old companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Oct. 1 and also transfered most of their car-related operations J&K Technologies Corp., a joint venture the two created in 2007 to focus on car electronics.

"The goal is to quickly maximize synergies in the Car Electronics business, from which JVC Kenwood HD expects the greatest synergies in this management integration," the company said in a statement. "As a result, J&K Technologies expanded operations to full-fledged development, design, procurement and production without limitation down the road."

JVC Kenwood Group also started using a new corporate logo Oct. 1.