Casio, Hitachi and NEC took defensive steps to protect their cellphones today and said they would merge their handset businesses into a single joint venture. The deal leaked earlier will see NEC join an existing Casio and Hitachi venture but largely take it over; NEC will have a 66 percent stake while Casio and Hitachi will have 17.3 percent and 16.7 percent respectively. All three will share their technology, production and other efforts as part of the deal.
