News sources in Japan reported that Sharp intends to double its global TV sales to 10 million by 2018, exploiting the supply chain that it has after its acquisition by Foxconn, although this will still be behind the almost 15 million that the company sold in fiscal 2010 before sales fell below 6 million when the the company hit the perfect storm of ASO and the Fukushima disaster in the Japanese market. The Kyodo News quoted Kazuhiro Kitamura of Sharp as saying “we are undertaking various efforts to raise Sharp to a global brand” and is considering resuming sales in Europe and the USA. (Sharp Rethinks TV Licensing and Hisense: No Change in Sharp Deal)
Analyst Comment
As we said in our IFA report, while Hisense is not likely to do a deal with Foxconn, a deal for Foxconn to acquire UMC and thus overcome the potential barrier to running the European operation directly might make sense. (BR)
