sharp corporation sharp s former headquarters complex in abeno ku osaka native name type public subsidiary kabushiki kaisha traded as tyo 6753 osaka se 6753 nagoya se 6753 industry consumer electronics founded september 15 1912 ; 104 years ago 1912 09 15 tokyo japan 1 founder tokuji hayakawa 1 headquarters sakai ku sakai japan area served japan worldwide global key people jeng wu tai 2 president products televisions audiovisual home appliances information equipments ics solar cells mobile phones fax machines electronic components calculators lcd panels revenue 2.927 trillion 2014 us 28.7 billion 1 operating income 108.6 billion 2014 us 1.06 billion 1 net income 11.5 billion 2014 us 0.11 billion 1 total assets 2.182 trillion 2014 us 21.39 billion 1 total equity 207.2 billion 2013 us 2.03 billion 1 number of employees 50 253 2014 1 parent foxconn website sharp.co.jp sharp corporation sh pu kabushiki gaisha is a japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products headquartered in sakai ku sakai . since 2016 it has been an integral part of taiwan based foxconn group . sharp employs more than 50 000 people worldwide . the company was founded in september 1912 in tokyo and takes its name from one of its founder s first inventions the ever sharp mechanical pencil which was invented by tokuji hayakawa in 1915 . as of 2013 sharp corporation is the tenth largest by market share television manufacturer in the world . 5 in japan it has been a long time leader . 6 sharp has at times also been the most popular mobile phone brand in the japanese market but is currently third biggest . 7 8 contents 1 history 2 products 3 operations 3.1 headquarters 3.2 factory 4 antitrust law violations 4.1 us 4.2 japan 5 environmental record 6 sponsorships 7 products gallery 8 see also 9 references 10 external links history edit sharp portable tv sharp md ms701h in 1912 tokuji hayakawa founded a metal workshop in tokyo . the first of his many inventions was a snap buckle named tokubijo . another of his inventions was the ever sharp mechanical pencil in 1915 from which the sharp corporation derived its name . 9 after the pencil business was destroyed by the 1923 great kant earthquake the company relocated to osaka and began designing the first generation of japanese radio sets . these went on sale in 1925 . in 1953 sharp started producing tv sets . in 1964 sharp developed the world s first transistor calculator which was priced at jp 535 000 us 1 400 . it took sharp several years to develop the product as they had no experience in making computing devices at the time . two years later in 1966 sharp introduced its first ic calculator using 145 mitsubishi made bipolar ics priced at jp 350 000 about us 1000 . its first lsi calculator was introduced in 1969 . this was the first pocketable calculator priced at less than jp 100 000 less than us 300 and turned out to be a popular item . 10 the company produced the first lcd calculator in 1973 . sharp had a working relationship with nintendo during the 1980s and was granted licensing rights for the manufacture and development of the c1 nes tv 1983 later released in north america as the sharp nintendo television the twin famicom 1986 the sharp famicom titler 1989 and the sf 1 snes tv 1990 . all of these units are considered collectors items on the secondary market . one of the company s main inventors of lcd calculators was tadashi sasaki . 11 sharp s mobile communications division created the world s first commercial camera phone the j sh04 in japan in 2000 . since 2000 sharp has heavily invested in lcd panel manufacturing plants kameyama in 2004 sakai in 2009 . the sakai plant is still the only 10th generation lcd manufacturing plant on the globe and best fit for production of 60 inch or larger panels . however the 2008 financial crisis and strong yen especially against won significantly lowered world demand for japanese lcd panels . furthermore the switch to digital tv broadcasting was virtually completed in japan by the middle of 2011 . via japanese government issued coupons for digital tv sets consumers were encouraged to purchase digital tv sets until march 2011 . this hit the japanese lcd tv market reducing it almost by half from 2010 . all of those events strongly hit sharp s lcd business . as the result the sakai lcd plant suffered a reduced operating rate until q3 2012 . in june 2005 sharp produced the largest lcd television at the time with a display of 65 inches . it went on sale in august 2005 in japan . 12 from 2005 to 2010 sharp was the biggest mobile phone brand in japan . since then it has been constantly switching places through financial quarters against rivals fujitsu apple and sony . sharp acquired a controlling stake in pioneer corporation in 2007 . at ces 2007 sharp introduced a prototype largest lcd tv with a screen size of 108 inches . 13 in july 2008 sharp announced that the model will go into production for the japanese market . 14 in 2008 sharp collaborated with emblaze mobile on the monolith an ambitious project to design the ultimate holistic mobile device . 15 the project was never brought to market . key software developers were later picked up by other companies . on 25 june 2009 sharp and pioneer agreed to form a joint venture comprising their optical businesses called pioneer digital design and manufacturing corporation . 16 in 2012 sharp unveiled the largest production tv at the time with a screen size of 80 inches . it is part of the aquos range and went on sale in japan at around jp 950 000 . 17 2012 was the 100th anniversary for sharp but it announced the worst financial record in its history with a loss of jp 376 billion us 4.7 billion in april 2012 . in september sharp announced job cuts . 18 in 2014 sharp was able to stem losses and deliver a positive net income for its first quarter results . 19 in march 2012 the taiwan based electronics company hon hai trading as foxconn agreed to acquire a 10 % stake in sharp corporation for us 806 million and to purchase up to 50 percent of the lcd displays produced at sharp s plant in sakai japan . 20 in june 2012 hon hai chairman terry gou paid money for sakai plant and got 50 % ownership of the plant . however since the announcement in march sharp s share price continued declining and reached jp 192 on august 3 . sharp deal s price was originally jp 550 per share . both companies agreed to renegotiate the share price but they never came to an agreement . 21 sharp announced it accepted a us 100 million investment from samsung in march 2013 . 22 in 2013 sharp developed the most efficient solar cell converting a record 44.4 % of sunlight into electricity . 23 after years of huge losses in its overseas tv business sharp sold its mexico tv factory to chinese electronics manufacturer hisense for 23.7 million in july 2015 . the sale includes rights to use the sharp brand name and all its channel resources in north and south america except brazil . this meant that sharp has exited the tv market in the americas except brazil . 24 it was a sign showing sharp s rapid decline in that market where it once was one of the leading manufacturers for lcd tvs a decade earlier . 25 sharp s television market share in north america was 4.6 % in 2015 . 26 however sharp remains the biggest television brand in the japanese market . 6 in october 2015 sharp announced a smartphone that also works as a robot called robohon . it will be sold in 2016 in japan . 27 sharp began selling the world s first commercially available tv with a 8k resolution in october 2015 . citation needed the 85 inch lv 85001 model costs jp 16 million us 133 000 . japanese public broadcaster nhk will have test broadcasts at 8k starting 2016 with regular services expected by the time of the tokyo 2020 olympics . 28 29 on february 25 2016 sharp has accepted the jp 700 billion yen us 6.24 billion takeover bid from foxconn this acquires over 66 percent of sharp s voting stock . 30 on march 30 2016 foxconn agreed to buy sharp for jp 389 billion yen us 3.5 billion . 31 products edit see also list of sharp mobile phones sharp j sh07 mobile phone 2001 japanese market . core technologies and products include lcd panels solar panels mobile phones audio visual entertainment equipment video projectors multi function printing devices microwave ovens air conditioners cash registers cmos and ccd sensors and flash memory . the first commercial camera phone was also made by sharp for the japanese market in november 2000 . recent products include the viewcam the ultra lite notebook pc the zaurus personal digital assistant sidekick 3 and the aquos flat screen television . sharp manufactures consumer electronic products including lcd televisions sold under the aquos brand mobile phones microwave ovens home cinema and audio systems air purification systems fax machines and calculators . 32 for the business market sharp also produces projectors and monitors and a variety of photocopiers and laser printers in addition to electronic cash registers and point of sale technologies . 33 in the field of multifunction printers mfd has won awards from bli and bertl two firms providing competitive intelligence and test reviews in the print industry citation needed . sharp s mx2600n and mx3100n printers included version 3 of the company s open system architecture osa3 which allows third party developers to directly integrate their business applications with the mfd . sharp solar is a supplier of silicon photovoltaic pv solar cells 34 35 and offers a solar tv . 36 in q1 2010 the company made the highest revenues from production of solar pv systems . 37 operations edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message the sharp factory in kameyama mie japan . the sharp factory in taki mie japan . net sales for the year 2003 were 16.8 billion . the corporation employs 46 600 staff of which around half live outside japan . it operates from 64 bases in 30 countries and its products are distributed in 164 countries worldwide . many of its regional subsidiaries trade under the name sharp electronics . sharp was among the top 100 r & d spenders in a list published by the ieee spectrum magazine in 2002 . in september 2014 sharp announced that slovakian electronics company umc was acquiring an exclusive brand licence from sharp and its european television and audio business umc will also acquire sharp s polish factory . as part of the deal sharp will support the design and development of televisions sold by umc under the sharp brand 38 the same month sharp also announced a tie up with vestel in europe for white goods . vestel will sell sharp branded white goods except air conditioners such as refrigerators and microwave ovens manufactured by sharp in thailand and china . sharp will also license its brand name to vestel for volume home appliances such as refrigerators washing machines and ovens . sharp s remaining european business will then focus on the business to business sector including multi function printers and energy solutions . headquarters edit sharp s headquarters are at 1 takumi ch sakai