Sony Corporation (hereafter Sony) and Toyota Industries Corporation (hereafter Toyota Industries) today announced an agreement to integrate management of their ST Liquid Crystal Display Corporation (hereafter STLCD) and ST Mobile Display Corporation (hereafter STMD) joint ventures, and establish a new company effective December 1^st, 2007. STLCD and STMD currently manufacture low-temperature polysilicon thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (hereafter LTPS-TFT-LCD) panels for mobile products.

    Sony and Toyota Industries established STLCD in October 1997, combining each company's respective strengths in the production of LTPS-TFT-LCD panels. Responding to additional increases in demand, Sony and Toyota Industries established STMD in March 2005 as a second manufacturing base, achieving further business expansion.
With this management integration, the companies will unify manufacturing functions, and facilitate more efficient and responsive management operations with the aim of reinforcing business competitiveness.

    Following its establishment, principal management of the new company will be assigned to Sony, and, through a series of share purchase transactions, it will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony by March 31, 2009.
   (When the new company is established on December 1^st, 2007 Sony's share will be 86% and Toyota Industries 14%.)

    Through this integration, Sony will seek to further streamline decision-making and enhance management responsiveness within its mobile product LCD business. Meanwhile, Toyota Industries will concentrate resources on the core business segment such as automobile and material handling businesses, and also leverage experiences and know-how that have been acquired through LCD panel production for the expansion of those businesses.