Sharp will no longer manufacture televisions for the North American market, as reported by Forbes and several other media outlets. Sharp has sold its brand name to Hisense, which also purchased Sharp's LCD production plant in Mexico.

From Forbes
Having already pulled the plug on its European TV business in 2014, Sharp revealed on Friday (July 31) that it has now also bowed out of the North American TV market.

The dramatic if not entirely unexpected move comes on the back of another set of grim financial results for the Japanese electronics company, which found it running up substantial first quarter losses of around $230 million.

Despite being the first brand to see the potential of LCD screens as domestic televisions, Sharp has consistently struggled more than some of the other big Japanese brands to handle the stiff competition created on the TV scene by the arrival of Korean manufacturers Samsung and LG Electronics. And with new competition looming from Chinese brands like Hisense, it seems Sharp just couldn't see any way of turning its North American TV fortunes around.

Sharp's departure from the US TV scene, though, isn't a simple wind up and move on scenario. Instead Sharp has sold its brand name for North American territories to one of those new kids on the block: Hisense. Under the terms of the $23.7 million deal, Hisense gets both Sharp's Mexico LCD production plant and the rights to use Sharp's name on TVs in the USA. So Sharp's name will live on in your local electronics stores, even if the TVs behind it are no longer coming from Sharp's own production facilities.

To read the complete Forbes article, click here.

Additional Resources
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