LG.Philips closes $5 bln deal with HP

Five billion dollars is the value of the contract according to which LG.Philips will supply HP with LCDs for notebooks and monitors manufactured by the American company.

The contract, signed yesterday at Seoul, is valid for three years. In order to be able to deal with the orders coming from HP, LG.Philips will increase the production capacity.

For LG.Philips, which has been recently crowned king of LCD producers, this partnership is very important, the company having the opportunity to seize a significant share of the LCD market for notebooks.

The budget allotted by LG.Philips for new facilities specialized in LCD production is assessed as being 60% bigger than the one allotted by Samsung.

Following the announcement made by the tow companies, Samsung's stocks have recorded a 1.5% decrease.

The prices of LCDs have recorded a 10% decrease in the first quarter of the year, following the negative trend from 2004 when the priced dropped with 40%.