Sharp

Japanese radio sets. In 1953 Sharp started producing television sets. In 1964 Sharp developed the world's first transistor calculator, which was priced at ¥535,000 (US$1,400). It took Sharp several years to develop the product as they had no experience in making computing devices at the time. Two years later, in 1966 Sharp introduced its first IC calculator using 145 Mitsubishi-made bipolar ICs, priced at ¥350,000 (about US$1000). Its first LSI calculator was introduced in 1969. This was the first pocketable calculator priced at less than ¥100,000 (less than US$300), and turned out to be a popular item. The company produced the first LCD calculator in 1973. Sharp had a working relationship with Nintendo during the 1980s, and was granted licensing rights for the manufacture and development of the C1 NES TV (1983, later released in North America as the Sharp Nintendo Television), the Twin Famicom (1986), the Sharp Famicom Titler (1989), and the SF-1 SNES TV (1990). All of these units are considered collectors items on the secondary market. One of the company's main inventors of LCD calculators was Tadashi Sasaki. Sharp's Mobile Communications Division created the world's first commercial camera phone, the J-SH04, in Japan in 1997. In 2008 Sharp collaborated with Emblaze Mobile on the Monolith, "...an ambitious project to design the ultimate holistic mobile device". The project was never brought to market. Key software developers were later picked up by other companies. Sharp acquired a controlling stake in Pioneer Corporation in 2007. On 25 June 2009, Sharp and Pioneer agreed to form a joint venture comprising their optical businesses, called "Pioneer Digital Design and Manufacturing Corporation". In March 2012 the Taiwan-based electronics company Foxconn|Hon Hai(commonly known as Foxconn) agreed to acquire a 10 percent stake in Sharp Corporation for US$806 million, and to purchase up to 50 percent of the LCD displays produced at Sharp's plant in Sakai, Japan. In June 2012, Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou paid money for Sakai plant and got 50% ownership of the plant. However, since the announcement in March, Sharp's share price continued declining and reached 192yen at Aug 3. Original Hon Hai - Sharp deal's price was 550yen per share. Finally both companies agreed to renegotiate the share price. But both companies never came to an agreement. Sharp announced it accepted a US$100 million investment from Samsung in March 2013.