Philips to sell Philips Sound Solutions

Royal Philips Electronics announced yesterday that it will sell its Philips Sound Solutions (PSS) business unit to Japan’s D&M for an undisclosed fee.

Royal Philips Electronics

and

D&M Holdings

of Japan announced yesterday that Philips will sell its Philips Sound Solutions (PSS) business unit to D&M.

As part of the transaction, all sites and activities of PSS will be transferred to D&M. The transaction, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2006, will be settled in cash. No further financial details about the transaction have been disclosed.

Philips Sound Solutions is an OEM supplier of speaker systems, primarily to the automotive industry. Philips said in a statement that as an OEM component developer and manufacturer, PSS is considered a non-core activity, forming part of Philips Corporate Investments. The transaction is considered by Philips to represent another step in focusing on its healthcare, lifestyle and technology activities.

Headquartered in Dendermonde, Belgium, PSS has development centres in Belgium, China and India, and production facilities in Belgium, Hungary, Ukraine, China and India. In 2005, PSS had revenues of approximately €120m.