Sony, 3 other firms team up to form electronic books company+

TOKYO, May 27 Kyodo -
Electronics giant Sony Corp. will team up with KDDI Corp., Toppan Printing Co.
and Asahi Shimbun Co. to create a company that will sell and distribute
electronic books amid growing demand for digitized content, the four companies
said Thursday.
The latest move aims to challenge U.S. peers which are taking the lead in the
e-book business, notably Apple Inc. whose iPad tablet computer is set to hit
the Japanese market on Friday, and Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle.
The new company, which is slated to be set up on July 1, will be responsible
for creating a common electronic platform for digital content, such as books,
comics, magazines and newspapers.
The four will have an equal stake of 25 percent in the company, whose services
are envisioned to begin within the year, they said.
''We aim for our services to help develop the country's electronic book
industry,'' Sony Electronics Inc. Senior Vice President Fujio Noguchi said in a
joint press conference with representatives from the three other stakeholders.
In conjunction with the four firms' accord, Sony said it will launch its own
terminal for reading e-books this year, and likely sell it in other countries
such as China.
Sony's reentry into the business of offering e-book readers, which are
electronic devices designed to read digital books, comes after the electronics
maker withdrew from such business in Japan in 2007 due to sluggish sales.
''I can see and feel the great speed in which the e-book business is (growing)
rapidly worldwide,'' Noguchi said of the potential for e-book business also in
Japan.
Noguchi also stressed they are offering an ''open'' platform which means other
firms in the same sector can also join and take part. That would mean while
KDDI is among the pioneers in the setup of the company, rivals such as NTT
Docomo Inc. and Softbank Mobile Corp. may also take part.
Under their partnership, the four companies will create one of the largest
e-book distribution platforms in Japan as they try to lure more publishers,
newspapers and other companies in providing their digital content.
Noguchi dismissed views that their entry into the e-book market was belated and
noted that their strengths will lie in the quality and quantity of their
contents.
The four companies however did not disclose what kind of or how many contents
would be available to users.
==Kyodo