Kyocera Kinseki Corporation has decided to acquire Hertz Technology Inc. as a wholly owned subsidiary in order to further enhance its crystal products business. On the same day, Kyocera Kinseki entered into a share purchase agreement with existing shareholders of Hertz. Hertz is scheduled to change its name to "Kyocera Kinseki Hertz Corporation" as from October 1, 2006.
Hertz manufactures and markets crystal devices including crystal units for ham radios and crystal filters. In addition, it manufactures and sells surface mount type tuning-fork crystal unit developed through a unique technology, which is expected to become the principal product of a business in the future.
Tuning-fork crystal unit is crystal-related component that creates reference signal, for timepieces, and its demand is increasing for use in electronic equipment having clock functions, such as mobile phone handsets and digital home appliances. The size of their market for the year ending March 31, 2007 is expected to reach 40.6 billion yen, a 4% increase as compared to the previous year (based on a forecast by the QIAJ of production by domestic manufacturers).
Kyocera Kinseki is a major crystal device manufacturer which develops and manufactures artificial crystal and crystal-applied products including crystal units, crystal oscillators, SAW filters, optical devices, etc. As a result of the acquisition of Hertz, Kyocera Kinseki will be able to integrate its own manufacturing technology with Hertz's basic technology and processing technology for tuning-fork crystals, and will be able to increase its manufacturing volume for crystal devices. In addition, Kyocera Kinseki will be able to expand its business as a total crystal device manufacturer by adding tuning-fork crystal units, not currently manufactured by it, to its products lineup and by enhancing its products for the wireless communication market.
Products currently manufactured and sold by Hertz will continue to be manufactured and sold by Hertz and, as from October 1, 2006, under the name of Kyocera Kinseki Hertz Corporation.
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