Japanese camera and office equipment maker Canon said it will pay $403 million for a quarter stake in Hitachi's LCD panel business to get its own supply of parts for its cameras and copiers.
Canon and Matsushita Electric Industrial agreed in December to buy 24.9 percent each of the LCD panel maker, Hitachi Displays, now wholly owned by Hitachi.
Canon, the world's largest maker of digital cameras, currently has to buy LCD panels for its cameras, camcorders, copiers, and printers.
Wednesday's announcement of the price Canon will pay is the latest in a flurry of alliances in Japan's LCD panel and flat TV industry as companies seek ways to share hefty investment bills and hedge against the risk of oversupply.
Canon wants to eventually buy Hitachi Displays stakes from Matsushita, the maker of Panasonic products, and Hitachi to make it a subsidiary. Matsushita has so far not revealed the purchase for its quarter.
Hitachi Displays owns 50 percent of large LCD maker IPS Alpha Technology.
Canon's announcement follows Sony's decision on Tuesday to take a one-third stake in a $3.5 billion LCD panel plant being built by Sharp.
Also, a source at Samsung Electronics said on Wednesday that Sony and Samsung were in the final stages of talks to jointly build a new LCD panel production line.
Samsung and Sony, the world's largest and second largest LCD TV makers, run an LCD joint venture, S-LCD.
©2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. CNET , CNET.com , and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CNET Networks, Inc. Used by permission.
