Victor Co. of Japan, a struggling subsidiary of electronics giant Matsushita, said Tuesday it will officially start negotiations as early as next month to merge with Kenwood Corp. in 2008, possibly in the form of creating a joint holding company that will hold all shares of the two firms.
"The two companies will start discussion so that management integration will be implemented as early as possible," they said in a joint statement.
As a first step to a merger, Kenwood and investment fund Sparx Group Co., the biggest shareholder of Kenwood, will invest a total of 350 billion yen in Victor next month to help the ailing company rebuild its business, the statement says.