Foxconn Seals Deal for Sharp

TOKYO—IPhone assembler Foxconn Technology Group completed its $3.8 billion deal to buy electronics major Sharp Corp. on Friday, setting the stage for Taiwanese tycoon Terry Gou to begin restructuring efforts to turn around the embattled Japanese company.

Osaka-based Sharp said it had received ¥ 388.8 billion ($3.81 billion) from the contract electronics manufacturer formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.

The Taiwanese group in return acquired a 66% stake in Sharp, whose revenue comes mostly from selling its own consumer electronics products and supplying display panels for major smartphone makers including Apple Inc.

Mr. Gou, Foxconn's chairman, will soon send his right-hand man and the group's No. 2 executive, Tai Jeng-wu, to head the Japanese company and implement restructuring efforts, which would include thousands of additional job cuts.

Kozo Takahashi, the chief executive of Sharp who accepted the Foxconn deal in March, stepped down from the post Friday.

The two companies had been hoping to seal the deal by June, but reviews by Chinese antitrust authorities took longer than expected. The government approved the deal Thursday.

Write to Takashi Mochizuki at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 12, 2016 06:05 ET (10:05 GMT)

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