Japanese electronics company, Sharp Corporation, has been up for sale for months now. Earlier reports had indicated that Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology, the world’s largest contract manufacture of electronics, was one of the firms interested in buying the one-time electronics giant based out of the Japanese capital city of Tokyo. However, Foxconn is not the only company that’s looking to get its hands on the assets of the erstwhile electronics giant from Japan. The original list of prospective buyers also included the likes of Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), which is a Tokyo-based investment firm that’s said to be backed by the Japanese federal government, which was said to be unwilling to let foreign companies get their hands on Sharp’s vast array of intellectual property. Latest reports seem to indicate that even Samsung may be interested in buying the beleaguered electronics company, but nothing can be confirmed on that front as of now.
The curious thing is that while INCJ had offered to pay only about $300 billion Yen ($2.7 billion) to clinch the deal, Foxconn was reported to have offered significantly higher to buy the struggling Japanese company. However, according to latest reports out of Japan, the Taiwan-based contract manufacturer is apparently considering reducing its bid by as much as 100 billion Yen ($898 million), which is indeed a large step-down from the company’s earlier offer that was said to be in the region of around 489 billion Yen ($4.39 billion). However, Foxconn has reportedly been reassessing the deal since last month, having discovered some “previously-undisclosed liabilities” that reflect poorly on the overall health of the company.
It is worth mentioning that Sharp is expected to announce its FY2016 results at some stage over the coming weeks, and Foxconn believes that the results will reveal a further worsening of the company’s financials, with lower earnings and higher losses. That fear, in all likelihood, is also playing a significant part in Foxconn’s reported plans of lowering its offer for the beleaguered electronics company. According to the reports, the board members of Sharp Corporation will hold a meeting later this month to review the ongoing situation and to see if it can somehow get the kind of money that will not upset its shareholders any more than they already are, giving the persistent under-performance of the company over the past few years.