Troubled Japanese electronics maker Sharp has agreed to a takeover offer from Taiwanese company Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, Japanese media reports say.
Sharp Corp would not confirm the reports by Kyodo News Service and other media that it had opted for Foxconn rather than a competing consortium of Japanese investors to help restructure its once booming liquid-crystal display panel business to cope with competition from South Korean and Chinese rivals.
Kyodo, which cited unidentified sources close to the matter, as did the other reports, put the value of the deal at 660 billion yen ($A8.20 billion).
If carried out, the move would mark the first takeover of a major Japanese electronics manufacturer by a foreign company.
Osaka-based Sharp has long been a prized brand in the country, beginning with the mechanical pencil, still known as the "sharp pencil" in Japan. It also pioneered hand-held electronic devices.
Sharp had its beginnings as a Tokyo-based metalworking shop in 1912. It later made its fame with Aquos flat-panel TVs and nifty net-connecting mobile phones, long before the arrival of iPhones in Japan.
But its finances deteriorated over the last several years as panel prices dropped, and it could not beat price competition from Asian rivals.
