Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) chairman Young Liu reportedly made another visit to Sharp in Japan last week, following his previous 3-day visit in early July, and stayed for the whole week to get a hold of Sharp's current status, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.
The sources revealed that Liu during his conversations with Sharp's management team said specifically that Foxconn will provide resources to the company as its major shareholder and will assist Sharp in expanding its sales momentum via Foxconn's help.
Liu also encouraged the management team to propose an improvement plan in three months and demonstrate its technology capability during Sharp Technology Day on November 11 to show the commitment for a transformation. Liu also companied the management team to visit Sharp's customers.
Some market observers pointed out that Sharp is currently facing two major challenges. One is to perform an upgrade transformation, while the other is the issues that lie in Sakai Display Product (SDP).
The market observers believe upgrade transformation can be done with the assistance of Foxconn and should focus on turning Sharp's patents into profits and products. Sharp has a total of around 50,000–60,000 patents at the moment and their licensing fees and new products made with the patents' technologies are expected to bring in new income to the Japanese enterprise.
However, the improvement plan proposed by Sharp in three months will remain the key to whether the Japan-based company can turn the table in the long term, the market observers added.
Article translated by Joseph Tsai
