SEOUL, Korea-Samsung Electronics Co. and Sony Corp. (Tokyo) have signed a letter of intent to form a joint venture company dedicated to developing state-of-the-art LCD television panels.

Together Samsung and Sony plan to invest approximately $2 billion in the new company, to be named S-LCD Corp. As part of the effort, S-LCD Corp. will upgrade an existing LCD television factory in Tangjeong, Korea. Samsung and Sony hope the company will be able to build 50,000 "8th-generation" panels per month by late 2007.