Japanese Matsushita and Pioneer, operating the PDP (Plasma Display Panel) TV brands of Viera and Kuro, respectively, announced on April 24 that the two companies have reached a basic agreement on forming a PDP business alliance, according to JCN Newswire.

As per the agreement, Pioneer is expected to cease its own PDP production and procure panels for its PDP products from Matsushita instead. Matsushita will take over some 200 PDP engineers from Pioneer, and Matsuthita will develop and manufacture PDPs and modules leveraging technologies from both sides.

Pioneer and Matsushita expect to form a definitive agreement on the PDP alliance in May 2008. Should the tie-up work out as planned, Matsushita expects to start delivering PDPs to Pioneer in June 2009.