The Hitachi Group announced its decision, by way of a tender offer, to acquire the common stock of Hitachi Maxell, Ltd. Hitachi believes that the move to acquire Hitachi Maxell as a wholly owned subsidiary will reinforce Hitachi Maxell's business and management base and that the joint relationship between Hitachi and Hitachi Maxell will lead to the improvement of the enterprise value of Hitachi Maxell and the Hitachi Group as a whole.

An integrated management of the companies will help optimize all of the Hitachi Maxell businesses, enabling larger scale and more effective investments in resources such as R&D and capital investments. Both companies expect tighter technological collaborations based on the integrated management of Hitachi and Hitachi Maxell, generating greater synergies.

The Hitachi decision will solidify a foundation of technological growth in the key areas of energy products, optical components and functional materials & components. Hitachi plans to optimize the entire groups' resources and accelerate the restructuring of the business portfolio in order to secure a foundation for future growth in these categories.

The acquisition is also expected to improve the collaborative efforts of Hitachi and Hitachi Maxell in areas such as lithium ion batteries, where both companies have been using Hitachi's laboratories in the development of consumer-use lithium ion rechargeable batteries. In addition, both groups will benefit from access to Hitachi Maxell's newly established electrode manufacturing plant with high speed and high precision coating systems designed to harness its proprietary technologies and also the Hitachi Group's new Advanced Battery Research Center for the R&D of materials for next generation batteries. The developing technologies will have an impact in consumer goods, as well as in the automobile market and industries.

All of the Hitachi Maxell businesses, including computer tape, videotape for broadcasting and consumer blank recordable media products are expected to be positively impacted by the acquisition. The Maxell family of storage products will benefit from faster product development and the convergence of resources, utilizing each company's expertise in order to optimize efficiencies.

Hitachi recognizes the strength of the "Maxell" brand name and sales channel experience worldwide and believes that the acquisition will be significantly beneficial to its consumer sales capabilities.

Hitachi has vowed to strive for "consistent growth" of Hitachi Maxell in its priority areas through a stronger relationship with the Hitachi Group and the effective use of its business resources.