Panasonic sells stake in LCD venture to Toshiba

Panasonic has agreed to sell its half of an ailing LCD venture to business partner Toshiba.

The company said that it would turn over its stake in the joint venture, which manufactures LCD and OLED displays.

The two companies blamed a shrinking market for the move. Toshiba said that after the deal it would restructure the business to account for falling demand in the market for small and medium-sized panels.

Currently known as the Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co, the company will shorten its name to Toshiba Mobile Display under a single parent company.

The business was first formed as a joint venture between the two electronics giants in 2002 and employs some 2,700 people.

The venture was one of the few LCD vendors not to be caught up in last year's price-fixing scandal. Chunghwa Picture Tubes, LG and Sharp were all implicated in the case, and Hitachi later admitted to price-fixing as well.