Eight international electronics and communications firms said Wednesday that they will form a joint venture in the United States in July to operate an Internet-based market for trading electronic parts.
The online market will enable participants to procure parts at low cost, they said.
The eight founders are three Japanese companies -- Hitachi Ltd., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Toshiba Corp.; three U.S. firms -- IBM Corp., Seagate Technology Inc. and Solectron Corp.; as well as Nortel Networks Corp. of Canada and LG Electronics Inc. of South Korea.
They will call on other firms to participate in the project.
The joint venture, e20pen.com, will be founded in Delaware with capital of some $200 million. The eight founders will contribute 50 percent of the capital, while the remaining half will be put up by U.S. venture capital companies.
The new firm will earn revenues from membership fees and trading commissions.
Planned to start operations in July, the online market is targeted to handle electronic parts worth more than $1 billion in the first year.