Ex-dell exec, wife ‘Austinites of the Year’

Former Dell finance chief Tom Meredith and his wife, Lynn, have been named Austinites of the Year by the Austin Chamber of Commerce. The couple will be honored at the chamber’s February meeting at the downtown Hilton.

Board chairman Clarke Heidrick cited the couple’s philanthropic work supporting the arts and education, among other areas.

Sharp Corp., a financially troubled Japanese electronics company, has reached out to Dell Inc., Intel Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. for possible major investments, according to various media reports.

Sharp is a television maker and it’s also Japan’s leading maker of flat-panel displays, which are used in TVs, computer screens and mobile devices.

The company is in financial difficulty and this month warned that there was “material doubt” about its ability to survive after it forecast a massive financial loss tied to falling demand for its display panels.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sharp is seeking a $240 million investment from Dell and a similar investment from Intel Corp. It is seeking a smaller amount from Qualcomm.

Round Rock-based Dell, which has about 14,000 employees in Central Texas, declined to comment on the report. Intel officials also declined to comment.

News reports in Japan have previously said Sharp was seeking capital alliances with Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel, Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Apple Inc. Sharp denied that report, which was released Oct. 26. Since that time company president Takashi Okuda said Sharp is pursuing various partnership options.

According to news reports, Sharp is developing display panel technology that uses less power than conventional liquid-crystal displays.

Tech industry analyst Rob Enderle told the AmericanStatesman that Sharp could be offering to convert part of