KDDI presently owns a 31.1% share of J:COM, while Sumitomo owns 40.5%. According to the FT, the two companies plan to merge JCOM with Japan’s second largest cable operator, Japan Cablenet, with each owning 50% of the combined entity.
It also reports that the two partners will take it in turn to appoint the chief executive.
The move would create a cable television company with control of half the Japanese market. It follows a period of consolidation in the Japanese cable market, which was said to suffer from fragmentation.
Sumitomo reportedly plan to use the merger to expand into the broadcasting sector in overseas.
