Bluetooth joint venture

　　Toshiba, Taiyo Yuden and IBM Japan said that they w ill set up a joint venture in February to licence the l ogo(标识) of a new wireless technology called Bluetooth.

　　Bluetooth enables users to connect portable compute rs, printers, digital cellular phones, handheld devices , and other mobile devices.

　　The new company will start operations on April 1, 2 001, the companies said.

　　Toshiba will take a controlling 80.5 per cent stake in the joint venture. Taiyo Yuden will hold a 10 per ce nt stake, while IBM Japan will take a 9.5 per cent stak e.

　　The new company will become an official qualificati on organisation for the logo that is mandatory for Blue tooth-enabled devices. It will also provide consultatio n for Bluetooth qualification procedures, supporting pr eparations for the qualification test, they said.

　　Toshiba and IBM are founding members of the Bluetoo th Special Interest Group, which was formed in May 1998 with L M Ericsson Telephone Co, Nokia, and Intel.