By Brent Li
A wave of outbound dealmaking is reshaping the global television and display market, as Chinese consumer electronics manufacturers aggressively expand their international footprint to offset a sluggish post-Covid domestic economy. This strategic expansion mirrors the continued market retreat of Japanese legacy brands that’s culminated in a historic transfer of global market power from Tokyo to Shenzhen.
In January, TV giant TCL Electronics (1070.HK) announced it would take a 51% controlling stake in a joint venture with Sony (6758.T) to take over the Japanese consumer electronics giant’s home entertainment division that includes both the Sony and Bravia brands.
A month later, TV maker Skyworth Group (0751.HK; 000810.SZ) unveiled an agreement to buy the North American and European television sales operations of Japan’s Panasonic (6752.T) for an undisclosed sum. The transfer, effective in April 2026, will leave Panasonic responsible only for product quality control and audio-visual standard formulation. It will retain sales oversight only in its home market of Japan. Currently, Japan and Europe account for 80% to 90% of its TV sales.
The fall of Japan’s ‘Four Heavenly Kings’
These landmark deals represent the final chapter in the unraveling of Japan’s “Four Heavenly Kings” of television, a group comprising Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, and Toshiba. At their historical peak, Japanese manufacturers commanded a global market share of nearly 80%. However, macroeconomic and currency shifts — including the Plaza Accord that drove up the yen, and the bursting of Japan’s asset bubble in the 1990s — heralded the start of a multi-decade decline.
In 2012, Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision (2317.TW) — the parent company of electronics contract manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group (2354.TW) — acquired a 10% stake in Sharp for around $810 million, eventually completing a $3.8 billion full buyout in 2016. In 2017, Chinese consumer electronics and home appliance maker Hisense Group (6000060.SH) bought 95% of Toshiba’s visual solutions business, securing a 40-year brand license.
The global display industry’s center of gravity first shifted to South Korea when Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and LG Display (034220.KS) overtook Sharp to become the world’s top two display manufacturers in 1999. A decade later, Chinese firms including TCL and BOE Technology (000725.SZ) began building complete capacity systems. In October 2025, TCL’s subsidiary TCL CSOT finalized the acquisition of LG Display’s China and Guangzhou plants for over 13.6 billion yuan ($1.97 billion), effectively wiping out LG’s liquid crystal display footprint in China. Panels account for over 70% of television manufacturing costs, granting significant pricing power to those who control production.
Backed by heavy investment in large-screen manufacturing technology and a sprawling supply chain, TCL has cemented its status as the world’s second-largest television maker, behind Samsung Electronics. It shipped 13.46 million units in the first half of last year, a 7.6% year-on-year increase, driven heavily by Mini LED models that boast high contrast ratios, precise light control, and long lifespans. TCL’s global Mini LED shipments soared 153% in the first three quarters of 2025, which the company estimated would help boost its adjusted full-year net profit by 45% to 60% to as much as HK$2.57 billion ($330 million).
Navigating domestic headwinds and exploring new energy
Despite strong overseas momentum, Chinese firms face near-term headwinds at home where consumer spending remains subdued for a fourth year post-Covid, compounded by the scaling back of a government trade-in program that subsidized domestic appliance sales. Even so, analysts project TCL’s sales could still rise 15% to 135.3 billion yuan in 2026 thanks to European and North American demand, and net profit could rise by more than 20% to nearly 3 billion yuan.
While Skyworth is expanding internationally with the transformative Panasonic deal, its domestic television business remains stagnant, growing only around 2% year-on-year in the first half of 2025. This sluggishness dragged overall revenue down by 6% in 2024.
Chairman Lin Jin — who took over from his father, founder Huang Hongsheng, in 2022 — announced a bold proposal in January to delist the company from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange through a share buyback scheme and the offer of shares in its rapidly growing photovoltaic business, Shenzhen Skyworth Photovoltaic Technology, which is aiming to list on the city’s main bourse via an introduction.
The unit, a renewable energy provider focusing on distributed photovoltaic systems, intelligent manufacturing, and energy storage, is now Skyworth’s primary growth engine. The division’s revenue jumped 53% in the first half of 2025 to 13.8 billion yuan, accounting for 38% of total revenue.
A broader resurgence in global dealmaking
Beyond traditional large-scale displays, TCL is actively cultivating growth engines. RayNeo Innovation, an augmented reality (AR) glasses company incubated and backed by TCL, already commands nearly 40% of the consumer AR glasses market in China. In early January, RayNeo closed a major financing round, raising more than 1 billion yuan from investors including telecom giants China Mobile and China Unicom. Market watchers estimate the AR sector — currently worth around 23.1 billion yuan annually — could jump to 118.7 billion yuan by 2030, eventually transforming smart glasses into active, round-the-clock personal information hubs.
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