Tokyo - DENSO Corporation and Robert Bosch GmbH today announced an agreement to establish a new joint venture to be headquartered in Kariya City, Aichi, Japan, with an office in Hildesheim, Germany.
The new company - Advanced Driver Information Technology Corporation - will develop navigation and multimedia-related components for both parent companies.
In order to adapt to emerging customer needs, the company will initially focus on the development of several different items to be used worldwide: navigation system LSIs, multimedia-compliant software platforms and map data formats.
Both DENSO and Blaupunkt GmbH, a 100-percent owned subsidiary of Robert Bosch, will own 50 percent of the new company with a capital investment of approximately 200 million yen (US$1.7 million or 1.6 million euro). Research and development at the new company will begin in June 2003.
DENSO began creating navigation technology in the early '80s. DENSO marketed its first navigation system for the Japanese market in 1984. The North American and European markets quickly followed.
"By establishing this new company, we are combining both DENSO and Blaupunkt technology to help create a new generation of navigation. After its creation, we will meet customers' needs for globalization as well as their need for new navigation multimedia features," said Mitsuharu Kato, director and board member for the ITS Division at DENSO.
Kato continued, "We see this as an opportunity to enhance the superiority of our products, to increase development speed to the growing market and save development costs."
"The new joint venture will create a powerful and competitive platform for both DENSO's and Blaupunkt's new generation of navigation and multimedia products," said Dr. Klaus Dieterich, executive vice president, Blaupunkt. "Based on leading edge technology both companies will be in a position to offer the car manufacturers worldwide solutions for a rapidly growing global market."
Blaupunkt GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH, is a market leader of car radios in Europe. Its headquarters is in Hildesheim, Germany. Blauplunkt has 7,500 employees around the world and produces car radios, car-loudspeakers and navigation systems. In 2002, worldwide sales were more than 1 billion euros.
DENSO Corporation, headquartered in Kariya, Aichi prefecture, Japan, is a leading global supplier of advanced technology, systems and components. Worldwide, the company employs 87,000 people in 31 countries, including Japan. Consolidated global sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2002 totalled US$18.1 billion (*1)(2,401,098 yen or 20.7 billion euros). DENSO common stock is traded on the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya stock exchanges.
*1 Figures for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2002 include the effect of an irregular 15-month reporting period, due to 45 overseas subsidiaries and overseas affiliates changing their year-ends to March 31 from December 31.