Japan Display, screen supplier of iPhone, is selling its factory to Sharp
What you need to know
- Japan Display is selling a smartphone screen factory to Sharp for $377 million.
- The company is using the sale to pay back Apple for covering the cost of building the plant.
- Sharp plans to consolidate display manufacturing into the factory.
Japan Display, who supplies screens for the iPhone and has been struggling of late, is planning to sell a smartphone screen factory to Sharp for around $377 million.
Reported by the Nikkei Asian Review, the company has been missing its revenue targets ever since it inability to switch manufacturing over to OLED displays that Apple needed for its new iPhone Pro models.
The company had been planning to sell the idle factory by the end of March, but the pandemic slowed down its negotiations with Sharp as well as another buyer of the equipment inside the plant (most likely Apple).
According to the report, Japan Display will use the money from the sale to pay Apple back for covering most of the costs associated with the building of the factory.
Sharp, who currently manufactures iPhone panels in Kameyama, is expected to consolidate its production into the factory in Hakusan.
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Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.