News

Last week, JBL Consumer Products (a unit of the Harman Consumer Systems Group) and Korea's L.G. Electronics (manufacturers of Gold Star and L.G. Electronics brand products) announced that they have entered into a strategic alliance to jointly develop and market a "broad range of new consumer electronics products." The companies say that the partnership "builds upon the respective strengths of both manufacturers" and will enable both companies to expand their offerings into areas outside their traditional product categories.

Harman's Sidney Harman explains that "the partnership of JBL and L.G. Electronics will enable JBL to offer a series of innovative 'cyber-age' products for a new generation of consumers. The product collaborations planned for development reflect the particular skills and resources of each company, in a mutually reinforcing arrangement that will facilitate the creation of products that neither company alone could produce."

According to JBL's Paul Bente, "our alliance with L.G. Electronics better prepares each company to meet the challenges of the digital future, where audio, video, multimedia, home automation, and computer technologies are converging at an increasingly rapid rate. By combining JBL's expertise in professional and consumer audio with L.G. Electronics' advanced technological and manufacturing know-how, we expect to offer consumers a whole new world of innovative products—and even create entirely new product categories."

Both companies say that details of initial product offerings are to be announced in the coming months. Bente adds that "we expect to make a major showing of several new products at CES 2001, and may even have selected products on our retailers' shelves as early as this fall."