There is No End in Site to Sharp's Crisis

In a editorial release the other day from The Asahi Shimbun, they reported that "there in no end in site Sharp's Crisis".  The report went on to state that the Hon Hai Group deal with Ming the Merciless (Terry Gou) is on hold and this deal is critical to Sharp's turn around. One of the key factors maybe that Hon Hai wants a seat on the Sharp board, and Sharp seems unwilling to move on this.  This could be a deeper culture issue with the Chinese and Japanese. 

It was also reported last week that the two main Japanese bank lenders MAY send and executive team to protect their interests, at this point there's been no further news about this. 

While we've been following all of the news & rumors about Sharp on the Print4Pay Hotel forums, it seems to be the general consensus that Sharp USA may also be starting to feel the effects of Sharp's financial mess. I for one have put doubt in current Sharp MFP clients and will continue to bring up the financial crisis for Sharp, and if I'm doing it, pretty much means anyone with half a brain is also bringing this up. 

Ask yourself what has value that Sharp can sell?  Is there any real value in business units that can't make a profit with LCD TV's?

Here's some of the recent threads on the Print4Pay Hotel forums:

• Art, I'm beginning to hear rumblings of contraction in their direct branches and even possible sell offs.  Can anyone confirm/deny? If true, is this welcome news for Sharp dealers?
• Heard of some NC, ehhmm consolidation.
• well Sharp was announcing a number of new dealers recently this could be a play to be a Dealer only org in the US. come to think of it why are OEM's in the business of selling anyways? You would think OEM's would adopt a dealer structure like the Automotive industry.
• They could be going to more of a master distributor type of model. It is way less expensive for them to support 4-5 big wholesalers than 3-4-500 dealers across the US. The dist then has to give tech support, parts dist etc. A few years ago they pushed all the smaller dealers doing less than $500K annually thru distributors. This may be their long term master plan....... But who the heck knows?

These are only four of the 80 threads and 1,300 reads that were posted about the Sharp Crisis, I'm sure there will be many more in the coming months and days. If you'd like to read or post additional information, go to Print4Pay Hotel forums and enjoy.

Could Sharp be the next Kodak?

-=Good Selling=-