According to reports in Asia, Canon and Toshiba have entered into an agreement whereby Canon will purchase all of Toshiba's outstanding shares from their SED (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display) technology joint venture. The changeover is expected to take effect by Jan. 29.
The decision was reached following discussions between both firms "based on the assumption of prolonged litigation pending against Canon in the United States with respect to SED," the companies told the tech Web site DigiTimes.
The companies decided that Canon should carry on with the SED venture independently in order to make possible the earliest possible launch of a commercial SED business. While SED TV units are still set to be introduced in Japan near the end of 2007 as originally planned, Canon said it will reassess its future mass-production plans for SED panels.
Earlier this month prior to CES2007, Toshiba had indicated it would not provide an SED update or demo, which had been anticipated by some in the industry.
