Pioneer pleaded with Panasonic, before settling for Sharp

[The News Bot]

Cash-strapped plasma maker Pioneer originally turned to Matsushita (parent of Panasonic) for financial assistance, before securing its deal with Sharp, it’s been revealed. Matsushita declined to offer support but Sharp opted to buy 41.1 billion yen in Pioneer shares, giving it a stake worth 14 per cent. In return, Pioneer has taken out a 0.9 [...]
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[MAW]

I was astonished to read the last line of that article! Sony on the brink of collaberation with, er, Toshiba?

[kourosh]

So we might see a HD-DVD player from Sony and a Blu Ray player from Toshiba

[movieman100]

Originally Posted by kourosh

So we might see a HD-DVD player from Sony and a Blu Ray player from Toshiba

Or multi-format players from both....

[bluraymond]

Originally Posted by MAW

I was astonished to read the last line of that article! Sony on the brink of collaberation with, er, Toshiba?

Remember that the Cell processor was tri-developed between IBM/Sony/Toshiba and recent reports have suggested that sony is going to sell it's semiconductor unit to Toshiba. So if Toshiba wanted to be a bit cheeky it too could create a games console with a cell processor and have HD-DVD as the format carrier, I wonder if Bill Gates would be interested for the next xbox design

[Simba]

pioneer is probably only struggling because it makes the some of the best plasmas at premium prices that no one can afford. it would have been good to see panasonic and pioneer team up .... then they would rule the world at the top spot... they could be called 'Paneer' or 'Piosonic'

its funny to see the top dogs team up together and the underdogs team up together... jvc and kenwood ahem... hehe

[TheBoingoBandit]

Originally Posted by Simba

they could be called 'Paneer' or 'Piosonic'

I suspect you could already find Chinese companies using those brand names!