Iconic Japanese consumer electronics maker to be sold for over $1 billion
Swedish investment firm EQT has reached a preliminary agreement to sell Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer Pioneer Corp.
The buyer will be the Taiwanese company CarUX, part of the Innolux Corp. group. It specializes in the production of active LED and liquid crystal displays.
According to the agreement, the Taiwanese will pay approximately $1.1 billion for 100 percent of Pioneer Corp. shares. On the day of the transaction, liabilities to suppliers will also be settled, which may reduce the financial value of the transaction itself.
Pioneer has been present in the market of specialist radio equipment, disco equipment, video players, televisions, and speakers since the early nineties. In 1996, it launched the first satellite music channel, Pioneer Karaoke Channel.
Over the years, its products sold worse and worse, and competition from Chinese manufacturers left no illusions about the future.
In 2019, the company was acquired by the Swedish investment fund EQT, which made many organizational changes and brought the company back on track. And now it has decided to "exit" this investment. The completion of this transaction is expected in the fourth quarter of this year.
Pioneer currently produces car audio solutions and car navigation systems, and also supplies specialized software for the automotive industry.
Journalist, graduate of political science at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University. Associated with the media for over 40 years. After graduating in 1982, he worked in the editorial offices of "Gazeta Krakowska" and "Kurier Polski". Member of the editorial team of "Przegląd Techniczny". He published texts in "Student", "Przekrój", "Życie Literackie". Since the economic and political changes, for over 20 years associated with the Reuters agency as a correspondent in Krakow. For the next three years, he conducted practical classes with students at the Institute of Journalism, Media and Social Communication of the Jagiellonian University. Since December 2021, he has joined the PTWP Group and works on the WNP.PL portal. His main professional interests are economics and politics at the global level and the participation of Polish business in this, especially companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Winner of the "Ostrego Pióra" award, granted for "spreading economic education" by the BCC, as well as the Golden Pear - a journalistic award of the Małopolska Branch of the Association of Journalists of the Republic of Poland.
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