Sharp Corporation (hereinafter “Sharp”) and Culture Convenience Club Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “CCC”) announced today that they have signed a basic agreement to collaborate on content service business, including the establishment of a joint venture company for the E-store offering entertainment content. The two companies will start the E-store “TSUTAYA GALAPAGOS” (hereinafter “E-store”) for the e-book reader “GALAPAGOS” from this December.

The E-store will start by providing e-book content, including newspapers, magazines and comic books, with the industry-leading book sales expertise of TSUTAYA book stores franchised by CCC, and plans to expand the number of entertainment contents to video, audio and game software in the future. The E-store aims to provide the largest number of e-contents available in Japan.

Furthermore, the E-store will offer a multi-entertainment service integrating multiple contents, using Sharp’s “GALAPAGOS” e-book readers and service platform technology. The user can enjoy two contents simultaneously. While reading the sports magazines, the related video content can be searched and viewed from the E-store. The E-store will offer E-store members “T-point service”, and “T-login ID”, both managed and operated by CCC.

The two companies plan to initiate the E-store service providing e-books (planned to start in December 2010), while expanding the content, to start the entertainment content service, including video and audio content, from next spring.