According to reports from Japan, JDI (Japan Display) wants to acquire JOLED. JOLED was launched in August 2014 by JDI itself together with Sony, Panasonic and the INCJ. JOLED is focused on medium-sized OLEDs for tablets and laptops, and reportedly aims to start pilot production in early 2017 and mass production towards the end of 2017.
According to the new report, JDI was interested in Sharp's LCD division, but Sharp finally decided to sell out to Foxconn (although that deal is not final yet). JOLED is JDI's second choice, and the Japanese companies aims to integrate their business by the of 2016.
JDI was formed in November 2011 by Sony, Hitachi, and Toshiba who combined their small/medium panel production capabilities and received $2 billion from Japan's Innovation Network Corp (INCJ). JDI has always been involved with OLEDs, and has shown several protoypes (including the flexible one you see on above, demonstrated in 2015), which they refer to as film-type OLEDs. Last month JDI announced that is plans to begin producing OLED panels in 2018.
JOLED, meanwhile, has been reportedly concentrating on larger OLEDs for tablets and laptops. In August 2015 it was reported that JOLED is set to establish a new OLED research facility in Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture in a $161 investment. The facility will include a pilot line that will be able to produce samples by the end of 2016, and the facility will also evolve into a mass production fab that will begin production by 2018 (this will require, of course, a much larger investment).
Earlier reports suggested that JOLED is in talks with Apple for a possible supply agreement for Apple's future iPAD devices.
