TOKYO—Toshiba is selling its TV production, brand, R&D and operations to Hisense Electric Co., Ltd, a publicly listed subsidiary of Hisense Group.
Hisense will purchase 95 percent of the stock shares of Toshiba Visual Solutions Corp. (TVS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toshiba Corp., for 12.9 billion yen ($113 million), with Toshiba retaining 5 percent stock holding. The deal allows Hisense to license the Toshiba brand for 40 years for visual solution partners operating in Europe, South East Asia and other markets.
Hisense will also take ownership of two TVS factories in Japan.
In a statement, Liu Hongxin, Hisense Group CEO, said his company would optimize TVS's resources in R&D, supply chain and global sales channels, and that both businesses will support each other in display technology, provide competitive content operation services for smart TVs for the global market, and accomplish fast growth in Japanese market.
Toshiba, once a major player in the global TV market, is struggling after its U.S. nuclear plant arm, Westinghouse Electric, rung up a $9 billion net loss for its parent due to significant cost overruns at four reactors under construction in the U.S. Westinghouse has filed for bankruptcy and is seeking a buyer.
This story first appeared on TVT's sister publication TWICE.