TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwanese-owned Sharp Corp. said Tuesday it was offering 4 billion yen (US$36 million, NT$1 billion) for the loss-making personal computer business of Toshiba Corp., giving rise to praise for its recovery under the control of the Foxconn Technology Group.

Foxconn, better known in Taiwan as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (鴻海) and the world’s largest electronics contract maker, bought the ailing Sharp Corp. in 2016 and has since turned the company around.

It also produced personal computers until 2010, with its planned purchase of 80.1 percent of the Toshiba unit Client Solutions marking its eventual return to the business.

Separate board meetings at Sharp and Toshiba agreed to the deal Tuesday morning, according to the Asahi Shimbun, with the transfer scheduled to be completed by October 1. The takeover will allow Sharp’s experience in display manufacturing to be combined with the Toshiba-owned DynaBook brand, reports said.

Toshiba recently also sold its memory chip arm to an American-Japanese-South Korean alliance, while its personal computer line faced tougher competition from China, even though it is credited with releasing the world’s first-ever mass market laptop in 1985, the Nikkei Asian Review reported.