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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Electronics maker Sharp has accepted a $6.25 billion (700 billion Japanese yen) takeover bid from Foxconn [npr.org], although the deal is now on hold. The $6.25 billion figure includes liabilities:

Ailing electronics maker Sharp has accepted a takeover bid from Foxconn, the company that assembles iPhones. After the deal was announced, Sharp's stock fell more than 14 percent. And Foxconn now says it will postpone finalizing the sale due to late-arriving information.

Thursday night local time, Foxconn issued a statement in Taiwan saying that it will now delay signing the deal, because of a document that Sharp shared with it on Wednesday, according to Focus Taiwan News [focustaiwan.tw], which adds that the sale was previously planned to be finalized by the end of this month.

[...] The Japan Times [japantimes.co.jp] says the proposed deal would mean the loss of one of the country's crown jewels, calling it "the largest-ever acquisition of a Japanese electronics maker by a foreign company."

Sharp's hidden debts may be the cause of the deal's pause [nytimes.com]:

It was unclear exactly what the disclosures were or whether they posed a significant threat to the deal. But their emergence at the last moment, and Foxconn's decision to hit the brakes in response, raises questions about what might be lurking in Sharp's books. "Maybe Foxconn found something they didn't like, or maybe there's just a lot to go through," said Nicholas Benes, a Tokyo-based specialist in Japanese corporate governance.

The takeover would put Foxconn in a better position by allowing it to manufacture screens for the iPhone [qz.com] and other devices:

Foxconn doesn't make displays. But Sharp does. So do LG, Samsung, and other electronics companies, some of whom make Android devices that compete with the iPhone. By acquiring Sharp, Foxconn could earn an even larger portion of the overall bill of materials for the iPhone. Apple would also benefit from the deal because it could buy iPhone screens from a partner, rather than a competitor like LG, from whom it currently buys screens. It might also be able to buy the displays for less than what LG or Samsung would charge for them, because of bulk purchasing benefits from Foxconn.

Foxconn [wikipedia.org] is also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.

Related: Sharp Announces 5.5" 4K Screen [soylentnews.org]

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