Long Beach, CA, May 15, 2008 - Kenwood USA Corporation has confirmed industry news of the pending merger between Victor Company of Japan (JVC) and Kenwood Corporation. The management integration of JVC and Kenwood is to be accomplished through the establishment of a joint holding company, named JVC Kenwood Holdings, Inc. Subject to approval of both companies’s respective shareholders, the joint holding company will be established on October 1, 2008.

“JVC and Kenwood have uniquely different businesses with mobile electronics being the one significant overlapping business,” said Shoichiro Eguchi, President of Kenwood USA Corporation. “Combining all businesses under one holding company gives JVC and Kenwood significant opportunities to share developmental and engineering resources, benefit from economies of scale that can reduce costs, and perform consolidation of activities such as procurement, patent management, research & development and logistics. Ultimately the merger will improve the competitiveness and profitability of both companies. In today’s increasingly difficult consumer electronics environment, moves such as this will become more commonplace.”

Regarding business opportunities in the future, Kenwood has a very positive outlook. “Our goal is to maintain the unique character of Kenwood, and with the additional resources available to us through the merger with JVC, we intend to capture a broader share of each market while delivering strong brand differentiation,” said Eguchi.