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is a Japanese
consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...
company headquartered in Daitō, Osaka. Currently, it is in liquidation. Apart from producing its own branded electronic products, it was also an OEM providing assembled
television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
s and video players/recorders to major corporations such as Sharp,
Toshiba is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...
, Denon, and others. Funai supplies inkjet printer hardware technology to
Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...
and Lexmark, and produces printers under the Kodak name. Its United States–based subsidiary Funai Corporation, Inc., based in
Torrance, California Torrance is a coastal city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the metropolitan ...
, markets Funai products in the US, along with Funai-licensed brands including Philips,
Magnavox Magnavox (Latin for "great voice", often stylized as MAGNAVOX) is an American electronics brand. It was purchased by North American Philips in 1974, which was absorbed into Dutch electronics company Philips in 1987. The predecessor to Magnavox w ...
, Emerson Radio, and
Sanyo is a former Japanese electronics manufacturer founded in 1947 by Toshio Iue, the brother-in-law of Kōnosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial, now known as Panasonic. Iue left Matsushita Electric to start his own bu ...
. Funai is the main supplier of electronics to
Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...
and Sam's Club stores in the US, with production output in excess of 2 million flat-panel televisions during the summertime per year for Black Friday sale.


History

Funai was founded by Tetsuro Funai, the son of a sewing machine manufacturer. During the 1950s before the company was formed, Funai produced sewing machines and was one of the first Japanese makers to enter the United States retail market. Then, the introduction of transistor technology had begun to change the face of the electronics market. The Funai company was formed, Tetsuro Funai became CEO for 47 years and a US dollar billionaire, and the first actual products produced were the transistor radios. In 1980, Funai launched a sales and manufacturing subsidiary in Germany. Funai also developed the Compact Video Cassette (CVC) format in the same year, a joint development with Technicolor, trying to compete with VHS and
Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, and stylized as the Greek letter Beta, β in its logo) is a discontinued consumer analog Videotape, video cassette recording format developed by Sony. It was one of the main competitors in the videotape format war ag ...
. Sales were poor and not well-received due to ongoing VHS vs. Beta war, and the CVC format was abandoned a few years later. Funai introduced an arcade laserdisc video game, ''Interstellar'', at Tokyo's Amusement Machine Show (AM Show) in September 1983. It demonstrated the use of pre-rendered
3D computer graphics 3D computer graphics, sometimes called Computer-generated imagery, CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional Computer-generated imagery, computer graphics, are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian coor ...
. The game made its North American debut at the Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) show in October 1983. Funai began to see rising sales of the VHS format, so in 1984, Funai released its first VHS video cassette player (VP-1000) for the worldwide market, while ordering all transport chassis mechanisms from Shintom for quick and efficient production. VHS format quickly became more popular and won the war against Beta format, due to Funai's unique on-time delivery for supplying rental VHS players for the porn-film industry and viewers. By 1990, Funai became the largest 2-head mono VHS
video cassette recorder A videocassette recorder (VCR) or video recorder is an electromechanical device that records analog audio and analog video from broadcast television or other AV sources and can play back the recording after rewinding. The use of a VCR to ...
(VCR) manufacturer in Japan. In 1991, a U.S. sales subsidiary was established in New Jersey, and it began to sell
cathode ray tube A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms on an oscilloscope, a ...
(CRT) televisions. In 1992, Funai canceled its contract from Shintom, due to the rising cost of VCR chassis mechanism and the expensive Japanese labor, and decided to build its own lower-cost chassis mechanism instead overseas. This creative move dramatically boosted up profits and reduced VCR prices down fast. Funai developed a new, permanent strategy in 1993 by opening two new state-of-the-art factories in China, which transferred all VHS VCRs production out from Japan. By 1997, Funai became the first manufacturer to sell a new VHS VCR below $100 for the North American market, while the Philips Magnavox brand they produced for was the best-seller. Quickly, Tetsuro Funai, the founder, became Japan's first US dollar billionaire electronic CEO. Later, the DVD technology was formed, and by 2001, Funai sold its first DVD player for less than $100. By then, Funai's U.S. subsidiary had relocated to Torrance, California. Today, Funai is one of the world's largest producers of DVD players, and is now one of the major suppliers of electronics to Wal-Mart on Black Friday. In 2008, CEO and founder Tetsuro Funai retired and stepped down from CEO to become chairman. Philips signed a seven-year contract with Funai to license, sell, and distribute Philips- and
Magnavox Magnavox (Latin for "great voice", often stylized as MAGNAVOX) is an American electronics brand. It was purchased by North American Philips in 1974, which was absorbed into Dutch electronics company Philips in 1987. The predecessor to Magnavox w ...
-branded televisions in
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
. In 2013, Funai acquired the option to buy the rest of Philips' consumer electronics operations and a license to globally market Philips branded consumer electronics. However, that purchase was terminated by Philips because of what Philips saw as breach of contract. On October 24, 2024, the Tokyo District Court approved a quasi-bankruptcy proposal filed by one of the directors, who was a relative of the founder, without a board resolution. On October 29, to the Tokyo High Court the representative director and chairman Yoshiaki Harada lodged an immediate appeal against the decision, arguing that the company was still solvent and could continue its business under a rehabilitation plan. According to the credit rating agency Teikoku Databank, the company had approximately 46.15 billion yen ($303 million) in liabilities as of the end of March 2024. On December 2, Harada filed with the Tokyo District Court a petition to commence rehabilitation proceedings of the company under the Civil Rehabilitation Law.


Lexmark

Funai has made inkjet hardware for Lexmark International, Inc since 1997. In August 2012, Lexmark announced that it would be ceasing production of its inkjet printer line. In April 2013, Funai announced that it had signed an agreement to acquire Lexmark's inkjet-related technology and assets for approximately $100 million (approximately ¥ 9.5 billion). Funai acquired more than 1,500 inkjet patents, Lexmark's inkjet-related research and development assets and tools, all outstanding shares and the manufacturing facility of Lexmark International (Philippines), Inc., and other inkjet-related technologies and assets. Through this transaction, Funai acquired the capabilities to develop, manufacture and sell inkjet hardware as well as inkjet supplies.


VHS videotape

The decline of VHS videotape began with the introduction to market of the DVD format in 1997. Funai continued to manufacture VHS tape recorders into the early part of the 21st century, mostly under the Emerson, Magnavox, and Sanyo brands in China and North America. In July 2016, Funai ceased production of VHS equipment, the last known company in the world to do so, after poor sales of its last VCR/DVD player combos.


See also

* TP Vision acquired Philips branded TVs in some countries.


References


External links

* *
Funai Corporation USA
{{Authority control Companies based in Osaka Prefecture Electronics companies established in 1961 Computer companies of Japan Computer hardware companies Computer printer companies Consumer electronics brands Display technology companies Electronics companies of Japan Japanese brands Companies formerly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange 1961 establishments in Japan