Owner Foxconn Shutting Down Sharp’s TV Display Business

May 15, 2024 by Dave Haynes

Japanese electronics giant Sharp announced this week it is getting out of the TV display business, shutting down production lines in Japan and looking at selling businesses.

This is televisions, not pro displays, so that does not mean InfoComm is a last stand for Sharp NEC, which markets high-end commercial displays, projectors and other systems. But I am sure the announcement has eyebrows nonetheless raised around Sharp NEC offices.

Sharp has been, for several years now, a subsidiary of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry, which is better known as Foxconn, the biggest contract electronics manufacturer on the planet.

President and CEO Wu Po-hsuan said Tuesday: “We are in a downward spiral … We can’t invest enough on our promising brand business [including consumer electronics], because Sharp’s ability to generate cash is not improving.”

Japanese companies were the big dogs in TV production until the Koreans came along, and now they’re also under economic pressures from lower-cost, government-backed manufacturers like BOE and TCL in China.

Foxconn’s CFO says it booked a non-operating loss of $330 million USD, NT$10.5 billion, just in Q1 of this year.

Foxconn is looking at Sharp facilities for uses like high-in-demand AI data centers, and developing a “structural reform and revival plan” for Sharp.