Monday, 31 July 2006

NEC, TI, Matsushita, Panasonic in JV to Develop 3G Mobile Tech

NEC Corp., NEC Electronics Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Panasonic Mobile Communications and Texas Instruments Inc. have signed an agreement to establish a new joint venture company. The company will conduct global development, design, and technology licensing for a hardware and software communications platform to manage the core communications functions for mobile handsets for the third generation 3G/3.5G and beyond.

The new company, Adcore-Tech Co. Ltd, is scheduled to be established in August, 2006 at the Yokosuka Research Park in Yokosuka, Japan, with about 180 employees. The five companies will jointly invest 12.0 billion yen in the new joint venture, with about 44 percent held jointly by NEC and NEC Electronics, about 44 percent held jointly by Matsushita and Panasonic Mobile, and about 12 percent held by Texas Instruments.

Through this joint venture, NEC and Panasonic Mobile will team with communications chip manufacturers Matsushita, NEC Electronics and Texas Instruments. This aims at concentration of the technologies and development resources of all five companies, thereby facilitating speedy and efficient development of the increasingly sophisticated communications technology for mobile handsets at 3G/3.5G, and contributing to the advancement of the 3G/3.5G.

NEC Electronics, Matsushita's semiconductor company and Texas Instruments will also sell these chips to mobile handset manufacturers in Japan and worldwide.

The new company will license comprehensive solutions, including communications platform and necessary software, system evaluation, and customizing services to mobile handset manufacturers.

Mobile handsets based on the new communications platform to be developed by the joint venture company are expected to become available in the fall of 2007.