Samsung Electronics acquired a 3 percent stake in Sharp Corp of Japan for ¥10.3 billion ($101 million) back in 2013. It was even rumored at one point that Samsung was interested in actually acquiring Sharp but that didn't happen. Samsung has now sold its entire stake in Sharp and in doing so it has realized a slight loss, so claims The Wall Street Journal. Samsung hasn't disclosed the price at which it dumped its stake but the scribe maintains that Samsung had to book a slight loss.
Samsung has been very secretive about the entire deal. Not only is it not revealing the price at which the stake was sold, it's also not telling who purchased its 3 percent stake in Sharp. Samsung was believed to have invested this big amount into Sharp because it wanted access to its copier technology patents. However, Samsung has now sold its printing business to HP for over $1 billion and it no longer needs access to those patents which is presumably why it ended up dumping the stake even if it had to take a slight financial hit in the process. The reason Samsung gave for dumping its stake is the same that it gave after it announced the sale of its printing business to HP. The company is restructuring its portfolio to better focus on its core business areas which include mobile, TVs, appliances and semiconductors.
