Since 2000
In January 2000, Kyocera acquired photocopier manufacturer Mita Copystar America, following Mita's decline and bankruptcy in the late 1990s.[6] This resulted in the creation of Kyocera Mita Corporation, headquartered in Osaka, Japan, with subsidiaries in more than 25 nations. Its name was changed to Kyocera Document Solution in 2012.[7][8] Kyocera Wireless Corporation was established in February of that year.[9] In order to better compete against NTT, the company's DDI subsidiary merged with KDO Corporation and IDO Corporation in October, forming KDDI.[10][11][12][13] By this time, IT equipment and related parts operations accounted for 70% of the company's group sales. Kyocera also maintained over 40 manufacturing bases and over 100 distribution bases around the world.[1]
In 2001, Kyocera acquired the privately held Tycom Corporation of Irvine, California, a manufacturer of precision drills used to make circuit boards for pagers, computers and cell phones.[14] In 2002, Kyocera purchased Toshiba's Chemical Materials Division, forming Kyocera Chemical Corporation, headquartered in Japan.[15] In 2003, Kyocera Wireless Corp. established Kyocera Wireless India (KWI), a mobile phone subsidiary in Bangalore. KWI has established alliances with several leading players providing CDMA services in India. Kyocera Wireless Corporation was the first to combine BREW capabilities and enhanced brilliant Color displays on entry-level CDMA Handsets, when it demonstrated BREW-enabled handsets at the BREW 2003 Developers Conference.[16]
In 2008, Kyocera acquired Sanyo Mobile, the mobile phone division of Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., and its associated operations in Japan, the United States and Canada.[17]
In April 2009, Kyocera unveiled its EOS concept phone at CTIA, with an OLED and which is powered by kinetic energy from the user. The prototype phone also has a foldable design which is capable of morphing into a variety of shapes.[18]
In 2009 Kyocera sold its Indian R&D Division (Wireless) to Mindtree Limited.[19][20]
In March 2010, Kyocera launched its first Smartphone (Zio) since 2001, after focusing on lower cost phones.[21]
In March, 2010, Kyocera announced the merger of its two wholly owned subsidiaries: San Diego–based Kyocera Wireless Corp. and Kyocera Communications, Inc. The merged enterprise continued under the name Kyocera Communications, Inc. Later that month, Kyocera agreed to acquire part of the thin film transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display (LCD) design and manufacturing business of Sony Corporation's subsidiary Sony Mobile Display Corporation.[22]
In October 2010, Kyocera acquired 100% ownership of the shares of TA Triumph-Adler AG (Nuremberg, Germany) and converted the daughter company into TA Triumph-Adler GmbH. TA Triumph-Adler GmbH currently distributes Kyocera-made printing devices and software with TA Triumph-Adler and UTAX trademarks within the EMEA (Europe-Middle East-Africa) region. TA Triumph-Adler GmbH is located in Nuremberg, Germany and UTAX GmbH (subsidiary of TA Triumph-Adler) in Norderstedt, Germany.
Kyocera became the first company to mass-produce SOFC stacks, in 2011.[23] In February 2012, Kyocera acquired Optrex Corporation, which was subsequently renamed Kyocera Display Corporation.[24] In 2013, it acquires the printed circuit board manufacturing company NEC Toppan Circuit Solutions.[25]
In November, 2020, Kyocera acquired a light source company called SLD laser. The company innovated a product that uses phosphor to convert blue laser light to produce a broad-spectrum, incoherent, high luminance white light source.[26]
