LG Display was originally formed as a joint venture by the Koreanelectronics company LG Electronics and the Dutch company Philips in 1999 to manufacture active matrixliquid crystal displays and was formerly known as LG.Philips LCD, but Philips sold off all its shares in late 2008. Both companies also had another joint venture, called LG.Philips Displays, dedicated to manufacturing cathode ray tubes, deflection yokes, and related materials such as glass and phosphors. On 12 December 2008, LG.Philips LCD announced its plan to change its corporate name to LG Display upon receiving approval at the company's annual general meeting of shareholders on 29 February. The company claimed the name change reflects the company's business scope expansion and business model diversification, the change in corporate governance following the reduction of Philips' equity stake, and LG's commitment to enhanced responsible management. The company has eight manufacturing plants in Gumi and Paju, South Korea. It also has a module assembly plant in Nanjing and Guangzhou in China and Wroclaw in Poland. LG Display became an independent company in July 2004 when it was concurrently listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the South Korean Stock Exchange. They are one of the main licensed manufacturers of the more color-accurate IPS panels used by Dell, NEC, ASUS, Apple and others, which were developed by Hitachi.
In December 2010, the EU fined LG Display €215 million for its part in an LCD price fixing scheme. Other companies were fined for a combined total of €648.9 million, including Chimei Innolux, AU Optronics, Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd., and HannStar Display Corp.. LG Display has said it is considering appealing the fine. This followed the 2008 case in the US, when LG Display Co., Chunghwa Picture Tubes and Sharp Corp., agreed to plead guilty and pay $585 million in criminal fines for conspiring to fix prices of liquid crystal display panels. LG Display would pay $400 million, the second-highest criminal fine that the US Justice Department antitrust division had ever imposed. Chunghwa would pay $65 million for conspiring with LG Display and other unnamed companies and Sharp would pay $120 million, according to the department.
