Japan's century-old Sharp bets future on foreign takeover

In 1916, Sharp got its start making belt buckles and sharpened pencils - hence the name. But a century later, the Japanese firm, which ballooned into a global consumer electronics giant, found itself in dire straits, saddled with huge debts and mounting losses.

A restructuring plan failed to stop the bleeding, and Sharp agreed on Thursday to be taken over by Taiwanese multinational Hon Hai Precision, the world's biggest electronics supplier better known as Foxconn. The offer would be the first foreign takeover of a Japanese electronics giant, marking a blow to the once-mighty sector populated by other global brands including Sony and Panasonic. The deal stumbled Friday as Foxconn's parent company said it would delay signing the pact to review new information it had received about Sharp, but analysts widely viewed a tie-up as all but done.

For years, Sharp - whose name once graced the jerseys of Manchester United players - had remained true to its humble pencil-and-belt-buckle roots. But after the 1923 Tokyo earthquake, which left more than 100,000 dead, company founder Tokuji Hayakawa expanded his little firm by making radio equipment and other items that could be used in a similar emergency. Hayakawa, who died in 1980, lost his wife and two children in the quake.

After WWII, Sharp became the first Japanese firm to sell televisions. This tradition of innovation continued throughout the 1970s, with the mass production of liquid crystal display (LCD) screens for calculators - which in the 1990s was adapted for computer screens and later for smartphones and tablets.

Even a foreign buy-out does not guarantee Sharp's future. LCD technology is facing a stiff challenge from rival technologies including organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Sharp and Hon Hai plan to invest billions of dollars in OLED technology.