Sharp posts fifth straight loss amid bailout talk
Japanese tech giant Sharp has posted a net loss of 24.7 billion yen ($208 million) for its fiscal third quarter amid bailout talks with Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group.
For the nine months to December, it posted a loss of 108.33 billion yen ($918 million), worse than last year's loss of 7.16 billion yen for the same period.
However, Sharp shares increased by 26 percent amid reports it had given preferential negotiation rights to Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision, for a deal estimated to be worth 600 billion yen ($5 billion).
The Taiwanese conglomerate, a contract maker for Apple's iPhone, has been competing with a local state-run fund called Network Corp of Japan for the bid.
Sharp, once a major producer of TVs, has, like many of its compatriots, lost its shares against South Korean tech giants Samsung and LG as well as emerging Chinese vendors.
It has many proprietary technologies in Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), the standard display technology in TVs.
The tech giant has been bailed out by creditor banks twice in the last four years.