EC approves Toshiba, Samsung joint venture

The European Commission Wednesday approved a joint venture between Toshiba of Japan and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics for the development, design and marketing of optical data storage disk drives.

In a statement, the Commission said the joint venture will continue to face strong competitors such as the Hitachi LG Data Storage joint venture involving South Korean manufacturer LG Electronics and Japanese vendor Hitachi, as well as Taiwan’s Lite-On Technology and Japanese companies Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) and TEAC.

“The creation of the Toshiba-Samsung joint venture will neither significantly reduce competition on the market, nor reduce consumers’ choice,” the Commission said.

Toshiba and Samsung’s joint venture will operate in the sector of optical data storage disk drives, which includes CD drives and DVD drives. Both parents will transfer their activities to the joint venture and will then exit the market themselves.