Taiwan-based optical storage drive manufacturer Lite-On IT announced on July 9 that it will exchange a cooperation memo with Japan’s JVC to form a marketing and production strategic alliance. In the preliminary stage, the two companies will establish a new company in Hong Kong selling optical storage-related products. Lite-On IT and JVC also plan to later set up another joint venture to make key components such as optical pick-up heads and holographic optical elements (HOEs).

Lite-On IT said that the new company in Hong Kong would be officially established in October, with JVC holding 51% of its shares and Lite-On IT 49%. Lite-On IT president Danny Liao said that the company hoped to borrow some of JVC’s technological advantages through the alliance and combine them with Lite-On IT’s manufacturing and system design capability. The Hong Kong joint venture will focus on marketing PC CD-ROM drives and other related products instead of consumer electronics, in which JVC has specialized. Liao said that since the new venture is positioned as a manufacturing company, Lite-On IT and JVC would likely choose to set up factories in China, cutting down overall production costs.