Sony, NEC Merge Optical Drive Efforts

Hardware manufacturers Sony and NEC inked a deal on Monday to merge their optical drive businesses into a new company that will be known as "Sony NEC Optiarc." Sony will control 55 percent of the merged entity, with NEC holding the remaining 45 percent.

Combined optical drive sales from Sony and NEC total close to $1.9 billion. Although Sony has fiercely backed Blu-ray for next-generation DVDs and NEC had planned to produce HD DVD drives, it's likely the new independent company will build hardware for both formats. Samsung and Toshiba previously merged their optical drive units in 2003.