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Reuters: Japanese consumer electronics makers Pioneer Corp and Sharp Corp said on Monday that they would delay the merger of their optical disc operations as anti-trust reviews continue overseas.

The two companies reached an agreement for the merger earlier in the year and were scheduled to start the joint venture on Oct 1, in a bid to establish a leading position in the Blu-ray disc market.

Pioneer also said it is still in talks with investors to raise money to shore up its finances. The struggling company has said it aims to raise 40 billion yen ($448.7 million) from investors including Honda Motor Co Ltd, which plans to invest 2.5 billion yen. The automaker procures car navigation systems from Pioneer.

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Electronista: Sharp on Friday revealed a blue-violet laser that it says could lead to triple-layer or even quad-layer Blu-ray discs.

The light is as strong as 500mW and achieves the feat by putting an aluminum oxynitride layer between the laser’s crystal and the usual dielectric film meant to protect the laser, eking out more output than would normally be possible with just the dielectric element alone.

It would not only allow a drive to read twice as deep as current dual-layer Blu-ray drives but would let it write at 8X speed on all four layers. Using current technology, which fits 25GB for each layer of a disc, the advancement would allow 75GB or 100GB recordable discs and would be useful not just for data backup but also for producing and editing movies, where the size of 1080p movies often limits long-format movies or those with special features.

Sharp hasn’t said how soon it would expect the technology to reach shipping products

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iPodNN: At the CEDIA show on Thursday, Sharp announced it will soon launch a new Blu-ray player, the BD-HP52U.

The reader will have the ability to connect to the web, and Sharp will partner with an unnamed service provider to bring premium streaming video content. This partner is expected to be named later in September.

Other known features of the BD-HP52U include Blu-ray Profile 2.0 support and the ability to decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio surround sound formats. Sharp has also officially unveiled the DK-AP8P and the DK-AP7P iPod docks, both of which are portable.

The AP8P includes a removable front face plate that can then act as a remote control, and is more powerful than the physically smaller DK-AP7P. Either has 2 speakers and a subwoofer, and will charge any docked iPods or iPhones.

Their internal batteries are rated at about six hours of playback, and a carrying case is included. Auxiliary line inputs let users connect devices other than iPods.

The Blu-ray player will begin shipping sometime in October, priced at $380 (€260). Sharp’s DK-AP8P and DK-AP7P iPod docks will ship later in September, priced at $190 (€130) and $130 (€88), respectively.

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Video Business: Pioneer and Sharp have formalized their plans to jointly create Blu-ray Disc players, among other products, starting in October.

The two companies’ venture, dubbed Pioneer Digital Design and Manufacturing Corp., should help the companies improve efficiency through sharing resources.

Operations are scheduled to kick off in October, but the companies haven’t specified when the first products will reach shelves.

Blu-ray players are high on the venture’s to-do list, as well as such other optical-disc products as disc drives and recorders.

Pioneer Digital Design expects to generate 38 billion yen (approximately $400 million) between Oct. 1 and March 31, 2010.

Pioneer controls 66% of the venture, and Sharp has 34% ownership interest. PDDMC will have 450 employees, to be based within Pioneer’s Kawasaki Plant in Japan.

Toshihiko Kurihara has been tapped president of the joint Pioneer/Sharp entity. He’s currently general manager of Pioneer’s components business division of the home entertainment business group.

Earlier this year, Pioneer management said it was joining forces with Sharp in product development in order to remain competitive in the marketplace. At the same time, Pioneer said it was slimming expenses by exiting its in-house plasma display production business.

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Electronista: Sharp and Sony on Thursday announced they have entered into a joint venture agreement related to the production and sales of large LCD panels and modules.

Sharp’s under-construction LCD production plant in Sakai City, Japan was transferred to Sharp Display Products Corporation (SDP) on July 1st, with opening scheduled for October. On December 29th, Sony will invest 10 billion yen ($105 million) into SDP for shares, which will be the first step towards reaching the final 66% Sharp, 34% percent Sony split.

This initial investment will make SDP a joint venture company of Sony as well as Sharp. The target date for the final deal is March 10th, with Sony responsible for 34% of the joint venture plant’s total $4 billion cost.

Sony will get a portion of the LCDs produced at Sharp’s Osaka plant and another one in Southern Japan. The new plant will mainly produce 32-inch LCD screens. Sony currently sources its LCD panels from Taiwan-based AU Optronics and a joint venture it has established with Samsung.

At the same time, Sharp has been linked to Pioneer and merging with its Blu-ray business at the start of October. Sharp is also negotiating with Toshiba to increase production of solar panels.

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HDTVNews: The economy hasn’t quite recovered yet. But this recent news from Sharp is definitely a positive sign. Even with the volatile market, consumers can’t seem to get enough of LCD flat-panel televisions. This prompted Sharp to increase their production of flat-panel sets.

Again, this is due to the ever increasing demand for LCD televisions in the first half of this year. First up is their Kameyama factory in western Japan. The company planned to increase glass substrate production from 90,000 to 100, 000, starting in August.

These glass substrate are the main components in manufacturing LCD televisions. Each substrate measures 2.16 meters by 2.46 meters and can be used to up to eight 40-inch class or six 50-inch class LCD panels. Basic mathematics would give us an idea of how many actual sets those 100,000 glass substrate could produce.

Of course, the Sakai factory, which is larger than the Kameyama factory, will naturally produce even more. It will handle even larger sheets of glass. I don’t know when the economy will completely stabilize. But this news is certainly one of the better signs.

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EngadgetHD: Pioneer and Sharp have officially finalized their deal to combine Blu-ray operations, completing the joint venture planned since Pioneer began navigating its way out of several businesses including its Kuro plasma HDTVs.

The official PDF has all the details, but the salient points are that Pioneer will have 66% ownership and 3 of 5 seats on the board of the 450-employee joint venture, ready to start up on schedule October 1, for the development, design, manufacture and sale of optical disc products, primarily Blu-ray.

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EngadgetHD: The UK is getting its own taste of Sharp provided BD-Live Blu-ray playing tech with the BD-HP22H, complete with DTS-HD MA, Dolby TrueHD and 1080p24 support.

Still, to get buyers to come up with the £199.99 (€233) pricetag, its touting a 0.7W/standby 20W/playing energy rating.

Buyers should be able to decide if that’s worth a few quid later on this month.

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Gizmag: Mobile phones and the beach are generally not a great mix, but for anyone looking to stay in touch while soaking up the rays there are a few more details filtering through regarding Sharp’s waterproof, solar-powered phone. [...]. There’s no word on if or when the phone will be released outside Japan.

The new phone will claim a world’s first in being the first waterproof phone to embed a solar panel into its lid. The solar panel can charge up to 80% of the battery’s capacity and can draw enough power from ten minutes of direct sunlight for a one-minute call, or two hours of standby time. Other details about the Solar Ketai are thin on the ground. Going by the picture it won’t be a touchscreen model like Samsung’s previously announced Blue Earth solar powered offering, but with still no release date set for the Blue Earth, it could beat its solar-powered competitor to market.

The Solar Ketai by Sharp is expected to be priced somewhere in range of 40,000 to 60,000 yen, (approx. 300-450 euro) and will be released in June through Japan’s KDDI – just in time for summer.

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JCNNetwork: Sharp Corp. doubled its loss estimate for the year give slump in sales of televisions and panels, but brought forward plans for a cost-efficient factory to cut costs.

The company would shift overseas some output of key components such as panels and solar cells with domestic partners to lessen the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations and control capital spending, a departure from its usual strategy of making core products at home. Sharp faced an uphill task to make the new business model work.

Panel demand was recovering, prompting it to move up its date for starting production at its plant by five months to October.

Sharp’s 380 billion yen (US$3.8 billion) plant in western Japan will process 10th-generation glass substrates, which are bigger than earlier generation substrates and help reduce per panel production costs.

Earnings were hit by mounting inventory from unsold liquid crystal display panels and televisions as consumers limit spending amid the global economic crisis, as well as restructuring costs.

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The Wall Street Journal: Pioneer Corp. said it will receive 2.5 billion yen ($25.8 / €19.7 million ) of fresh capital from business partner Honda Motor Co. in the first of a series of fundraising steps planned by the electronics maker to finance its overhaul.

Pioneer, a maker of car navigation systems and electronics products, said it plans to issue new shares to Honda by the end of June and use the money from the Tokyo-based auto maker to develop new car electronics products.

With losses mounting, Pioneer has decided to exit the flat-panel television business and concentrate on electronics for the auto industry.

Pioneer is also preparing to apply for a government cash injection under newly approved measures in Japan’s economic stimulus program.

Under a medium-term business plan also announced Tuesday, Pioneer said it will need to raise around 40 billion yen, but details for other financing deals aren’t set yet.

In the latest deal with Honda, the auto maker will pay 170 yen for each of the 14.7 million new Pioneer shares to be issued. Honda will have a 6.54% stake in Pioneer, becoming the second largest shareholder after Sharp Corp.

Sharp’s stake in the electronics maker will decline to 13.35% from 14.28% after the new share issue. Pioneer’s reform plans over the next three fiscal years through March 2012 include closing nine of 30 group companies undertaking production in Japan and overseas and shrinking capacity at six others.

It is also laying off 5,800 full-time employees and 4,000 contract-based workers from this year. At the end of December 2008, Pioneer had 36,925 full-time employees. It will also reduce the total number of directors and executive officers this year to 19 from 25.

Pioneer expects a restructuring charge of 47 billion yen in this fiscal year ending March 2010, but it expects its reform measures to reduce fixed costs by 50 billion yen in this fiscal year and a further 85 billion yen in the following year.

For the fiscal year ended March 31, Pioneer forecast a net loss of 129 billion yen, slightly narrower than a 130 billion yen loss estimated in mid-February. It will report full-year results May 13. The company also projected a net loss of 83 billion yen for this fiscal year. It expects to return to the black in the fiscal year ending March 2011 with a net profit of eight billion yen.

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JCN: Sharp Corp. doubled its loss estimate for 2008 on a slump in sales of its TVs and panels, but it brought forward plans for a cost-efficient new factory to cut costs.

The company would shift overseas some output of key components such as panels and solar cells with local partners to lessen the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations and rein in capital spending, in a departure from its usual strategy of making core products at home.

But market players said Sharp faces an uphill task to make the new business model work. Sharp, which trails Samsung Electronics and Sony in LCD TVs, said panel demand was recovering, prompting it to move up its start-date for production at its new plant by five months to October.

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